A year on
Oh, for Christ's sake. Every paper is strewn with messages from Al-Qaeda, stories of victims of last year's attacks, photos of blown up buses. Well done, British media, you've put another nail in the coffin of freedom.
Firstly, the more coverage we give this thing, even a year later, and the more coverage we give the pathetic rantings of a loosely connected group of madmen, the more the terrorists can feel like they've won. Are we giving them that feeling to stop them from doing more? Does anyone think they'll decide 'Oh, we won that one, let's hang up our AK47s and start a knitting club'? No, the more they feel like they've done something, the more they'll keep trying to do it again. And while it is always tragic for people closely related to those who were killed or injured, more people die of meningitis in the UK every year than died from those bombs. And we give meningicoccal virues practically no column inches.
Secondly, the more we play this up, the more the stupid people who make up most of our electorate will believe there is something to fear. And the more the Government can get away with. ID cards have been pushed through in the last year, with some opposition but casual indifference from the majority.
So, serious conclusion: Give it a break. It was a long time ago, and we're still at the same risk now as we were, which, individually, is minimal.
Stupid conclusion: The Government did it themselves, to help push through unpopular legislation. The media is buying the Al-Qaeda story completely. Osama Bin Laden is an actor hired by the American Government. 9/11 (I refuse to call the tube bombings 7/7. If they'd happened a day later, I'd have called them 8/7 just to confuse the Americans though.) was orchestrated by the Bush Administration as an excuse for the War on Terror, to bring democratisation to the world, and Saddam Hussein (who is, of course, not the leader of Al-Qaeda) is just seriously misunderstood.
Firstly, the more coverage we give this thing, even a year later, and the more coverage we give the pathetic rantings of a loosely connected group of madmen, the more the terrorists can feel like they've won. Are we giving them that feeling to stop them from doing more? Does anyone think they'll decide 'Oh, we won that one, let's hang up our AK47s and start a knitting club'? No, the more they feel like they've done something, the more they'll keep trying to do it again. And while it is always tragic for people closely related to those who were killed or injured, more people die of meningitis in the UK every year than died from those bombs. And we give meningicoccal virues practically no column inches.
Secondly, the more we play this up, the more the stupid people who make up most of our electorate will believe there is something to fear. And the more the Government can get away with. ID cards have been pushed through in the last year, with some opposition but casual indifference from the majority.
So, serious conclusion: Give it a break. It was a long time ago, and we're still at the same risk now as we were, which, individually, is minimal.
Stupid conclusion: The Government did it themselves, to help push through unpopular legislation. The media is buying the Al-Qaeda story completely. Osama Bin Laden is an actor hired by the American Government. 9/11 (I refuse to call the tube bombings 7/7. If they'd happened a day later, I'd have called them 8/7 just to confuse the Americans though.) was orchestrated by the Bush Administration as an excuse for the War on Terror, to bring democratisation to the world, and Saddam Hussein (who is, of course, not the leader of Al-Qaeda) is just seriously misunderstood.
Which ones? The terorists, the media, the government, the victims and their families, the electorate?
Posted by
Matt |
Fri Jul 07, 02:49:00 pm
Well, this is a good scale to work by - though it might be a British-People only joke.
Posted by
Matt |
Wed Jul 12, 09:03:00 am