on acknowledging terrorism

Walking down King William Street yesterday, I noticed a bus stop poster proclaiming the merits of dobbing in a suspected terrorist. This is something new in my experience, though we've not suffered anything yet on the Oz mainland. It really is a vexed question, whether we play up or play down the terrorist threat. Halfway through reading Sally Neighbour's book In the shadow of swords, I'm still not certain of the line to take. Do these guys feed on testosterone-driven heroics? Of course it's not that simple, but clearly too it's about a simplistic outlook. It's about having found the answer, which is what makes these 'revolutionaries' similar to Western 'Marxists' of yore (and not always of yore) in many respects. It takes us back even to the anabaptists and beyond. There are similarities, too, to various cults that have cropped up since time immemorial. Absolutism, which will always be with us, always have its adherents. Reading about the gradual conversion of bright sparks like Azahari, you realise how unpredictably attractive these all-or-nothing modes of thought, religiously cultured, seem to be. I'm not sure if they're more attractive, or more prevalent, than they've ever been, but with the greater availability of bomb materials, guns and other murderous stuff, they're able to make more of an impact. And surely the coverage they're getting is helping to swell the ranks. I'm still trying to ignore it all, to reflect on more mundane and innocent stuff.