Terrorism in the Modern Age

“I am certain that when opinions are free, either in matters of government or religion, truth will finally and powerfully prevail.”

Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, 1794.

Interesting article at Online Media Cultist.

Yes, I copy pasted.

"I spend a lot of my writing time cheering on the Internet, defending and promoting bloggers and the blogosphere, and generally expressing awe about the incredible online age we’re living in.

But there’s another side to it of course – better and easier and cheaper and more accessible communication and collaboration tools means that agendas of all kinds – good, bad, and evil – can be better and more efficiently executed.

News out of London over the weekend tells us that men linked to al Qaeda are using the web to promote the killing of non-Muslims. Pretty scary stuff in light of the very real world series of planned bombings throughout the United Kingdom that was uncovered in recent days.

It’s one of the biggest questions of our age, what can be done to combat extremist propaganda and prevent it from winning over those vulnerable to its sway. There’s no easy answer, of course, least of all coming from one person, and particularly when that one person is me!

I suspect that it can only be a fire-versus-fire kind of thing, but (mainly) of the non-militaristic kind. Better education, more communication, more outreach, more diplomacy, more multilateralism backed by competence and strength and wisdom."

Let common sense prevail indeed. It's useless to fight madness without inner strength and wisdom.

Of course, this has had an impact on any one who writes about this subject. Even in the most subtle ways we are affected and we may not be aware of it. For example, how many of us have not had second thoughts about posting certain pieces about terrorism? I know I have.

And that's disturbing. It's the first step in subjectively denying our rights. Worst of all, it's self-imposed. There is something to be said of the the "terrorists win" angle. They can "win" on so many levels. Liberty is a scarce and precious commodity. Mine it well.

Don't let it begin with our minds. Or else freedom will truly be on the run.