Social Communication ala 1984

Clever folks. Behead a few people and put the globe on edge.

Mass communication makes it seem like the beheading is happening in one's home. It's not.

Out of millions of people, one or two die. There's a word for our tendency to overestimate the risks of life. You know, as safe as airliners are people stop flying immediately after the rare accident. Not to mention dressing our kids in helmets and pads from head to foot when they go bike riding. In fact, better not let them out of sight when they ride since evil people are ready to kidnap them around every unsupervised corner.

Anyway, the same here. using this tendency to terrorize the huddled sheep.

We really do need to fight this effect and walk forward like adults. We can stop being used and abused anytime we wish.

link

Police foiled a major kidnapping plot, the first of its kind in Britain, with the arrests yesterday of nine terror suspects who reportedly planned to torture and behead a British Muslim soldier and broadcast the killing on the Internet.

"The threat from terrorism remains very real," said Assistant Chief Constable David Shaw, who would not confirm reports from the British Broadcasting Corp. and other media outlets that the intended victim was an army soldier to be killed in an "Iraqi-style" execution and broadcast on the Internet.

But the Birmingham kidnapping plot raised fears that a new type of terrorism has reached Britain, one that uses individual victims to send a message through kidnappings and publicized beheadings. Although the motive in the new plot was not disclosed, the announcement coincides with other indications that young British Muslims are becoming increasingly angry over this country's involvement in the American-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.