OFFLINE

the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature;  this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear

One of the number one goals of terrorist was to instill fear in America... Of course after 9/11 that fell apart (for a short time anyway) Soon after though, America has become a land of paranoid and paranoia. To me it seems anyway, that Terrorist succeeded in bringing about fear in us.

Xenophobia
Color Coded Terrorist alerts
Airport security
etc....

Anyone agree?

OFFLINE

Originally Posted by Michel Roque:

Anyone agree?

I'd call the Government the terrorists, though this is more of a poetic interpretation. Not because they were behind the 9/11 attacks or anything (we'll leave the conspiracy wackiness out of this thread), but just because they instilled fear, which was one of the categories you listed, though their motivation is a bit unclear. Maybe they did actually think it was a good idea and not just a subtle control tactic.
The Colour Coded Terrorist Alert existed for no other reason than to spread fear. I read an article about how unspecific, general threats don't help and just spread paranoia and fear. Example: TODAY IS AN ORANGE DAY FOR TERRORIST THREATS. Does that actually mean anything? We've been through so many orange days without a single thing happening.
In fact, we'd prolly have less fear without a colour coded terrorist alert thing during the years we had one. Here's why:
'The threat level has never been lowered to Low (Green) or Guarded (Blue).' - Wikipedia


Minor technicalities aside, I suppose it did make us a bit more paranoid but its starting to wear off now, as far as I can tell. Sure there was a peak of fear (around the same time the government was milking our emotional nationalistic responses to support a questionable war in the middle east) and maybe we were afraid back then. But, like I said, them feeling's gone now pretty much. So in the long run, no success.

OFFLINE

I think there is a wariness present that might not have been so prevalent before the people whom I chose not to address with any meaningful label became more active. We know now that such acts can occur anywhere, anytime, to anyone. THAT has an impact on our collective psyche. How can it not be so?

The phenomenon of certain persons buying into the belief, though, that such acts can ever achieve anything but the further sinking of the collective human ship in deep, unforgiving waters, is the really frightening thing. Yes, that's it for me: I find myself alternating between disgust/fear and fascination/incredulousness.

Something has gone terribly wrong in genetics wherein people are bred such that murder is their key motivation, their raison d'etre. The sadness of that is indeed overwhelming and is best not dwelt upon too long.