The pre-Flea me wrote a bit about fear, including:
Today in his weekly update on things war on terror, the Mighty Flea, who I greatly respect but often disagree with in matters political, growls at the prospect of "the myth of terror" - and rightly so. If do find this equally bizarre I also know that it is for slightly different reasons, the chief of which is, I suppose, growing up under nuclear fear as I discuss in the posts above.Sometimes I think the real difference occurs with scale. When a mine collapses, each miner dies individually but there is a separate and huge tragedy in the event. When an in-shore fishing boat goes down, the event is more local, the scope defined. When a farmer dies under his tractor, the neighbours hear. So while the Flea is correct in the details of the horror which occurred which truly struck me then, I have come back to a point where there now again appears to be no real prospect of my horizon being glazed and all life vapourized. This terror is still not that one I grew up with. The difference in effect? The world is not mad as it seemed when Ronnie and Leonyd were making it all look so bleak. The reality of the scale of the terror appears within comprehension, even if it means, rather than one license-to-kill James Bond, we now need 2,000 to 20,000 special service soldiers roaming the world popping off bad guys outside of the normal construct of law. I think on a macro scale the terror is now being addressed.
So is that right? What do we need to do and what are we prepared to do? Do we really need to bring each one "to justice" as the euphamism goes and demand democracy? Or does it get to the point of nuisance, is there a diminishing return? I think an answer to the first could see us at war with China about the time I retire in 25 years and the grandkids start arriving. The second might see 5,000 die on one day - or on more than one day - between now and then via a dirty nuclear suitcase or a cupful of liquid in the water supply. Or what if that was just a case of that was that and there are no real events again because the 2,000 to 20,000 do their job? Would we ever know? Even if it is not a myth, I am still not clear on the reality.
