RE: Terrorism is the worst threat we ever had to face - right?
Here some statistics about causes of death in Germany (year 2015):
- Overall: 925200
- Cancer: 226337
- Heart attack (without any other cardiovascular diseases: 50948
- Falls (for example from a ladder): 12867
- Car accidents: 3688
- Suicides: 10078
- Terrorism: ? < 0.1 %
That means to become a victim of a terror attack is statistically extremely unlikely. Ladders, stairs, cars, my own psyche are all much more dangerous (which still doesn't mean I refuse to sit in a car ... :-) )
I wonder why newspapers aren't full of cover stories about dangerous ladders, how to forbid them, fight against them and punish everybody who dares to buy one ...
It is true that if a terror attack happens, it is really terrible for all affected persons and I really feel with them and their relatives and friends, but that doesn't change my opinion that we react completely irrational. We do exactly what the terrorists want: fear them a lot and talk and read about them all the time ... As a consequence the terrorists are winning even if they are less dangerous than ordinary traffic jam: we change our behavior and restrict voluntarily our own freedom (in the seek of vain safety).
Thank you very much for your comment. That's exactly what I wanted to express with this article. Unfortunately, we keep acting irrational and the German government just recently decided to legalize the "Staatstrojaner". That's so wrong on so many levels.