Over the years we seem to have become habituated, even addicted, to the notion of radical threat, threat of the kind that can make virtually anything seem expendable if it does not serve an immediate, desperate purpose of self-defense -- as defined by people often in too high a state of alarm to make sound judgments about what real safety would be or how it might be achieved, and who feel that their duty to the rest of us is to be very certain we share their alarm. Putting to one side the opportunities offered by the coercive power of fear, charity obliges me to assume that their alarm is genuine, though i grant that in doing so I again raise questions about the soundness of their judgment. Marilynne Robinson
About This Quote

It is true that our culture has become habituated to being in a state of alarm regarding the possibility of terrorist attacks. The radical threat of terrorism has become so familiar that it no longer seems to us to be a radical threat. We have come to expect it, even to take it for granted. But the fact is that terrorism is not here, or at least is not here permanently, but it is worth noting that the defining characteristics of terrorism are not present in most incidents of violence within our society, even when they are violent.

Source: When I Was A Child I Read Books

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