How to Beat Terrorism: Refuse to Be Terrorized

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/end-911-era/

Among the great throng of commentaries about the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, Spencer Ackerman pipes up with the blog "Danger Room" from a publication called WIRED. It's a tech magazine catering to the masses of nerds who crave information about cool new advances in technology that our world is constantly producing. It is popular in print, but also has a strong presence on-line. In keeping with the nature of the publication for which he writes, Ackerman takes a slightly more analytical, but no less poetic approach to thinking about the day.

Entitled "How to Beat Terrorism: Refuse to Be Terrorized", the post spends a significant portion of its length giving just such advice. It emphasizes the logistics of terrorism. "There are any number of ways to crunch the data. But the bottom line is that you are vastly more likely to die in a car accident than from a car bomb." Ackerman, for a moment, seems to depart from the very focused group of nerds that make up WIRED's demographic and instead addresses an audience presumed to be slightly less intelligent or perhaps easily influenced by the fear tactics used by the Bush Administration. He soothes the imagined fears of his audience by almost babying them with spoon-fed statistics. There's a subtle humor to the way in which Ackerman, who I assume to be a nerd like the rest of the staff of WIRED, shifts between audiences. It seems, though wether this is due to the content or the way in which he must explain it to a "dumber" audience, that the author's tone becomes frustrated and angry. You can almost see him becoming frustrated with his audience as he reviews the mistakes we've made collectively as the American public. He later broadens his address to include all American voters. "The only way this changes is if citizens change the political incentives for politicians. Two-bit terrorists will always be around, sadly. But when the Harry Reids get major political blow-back for attacking the Rand Pauls, then — and only then — will the 9/11 Era be truly over."