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Re: POT_hot
At 11:50 PM 9/2/96 -0800, jim bell wrote:
>At 11:39 PM 9/2/96 GMT, John Young wrote:
>> Foreign Affairs, Sep/Oct, Lead Essay:
>>
>> "Postmodern Terrorism. The terrorism of the future may be
>> far more destructive than terrorism as we have known it."
>>
>> An informative survey and pot-heat by Walter Laqueur.
>>
>> Terrorism's prospects, often overrated by the media,
>> the public, and some politicians, are improving as its
>> destructive potential increases. Terrorism has
>> replaced wars between nations of the 1800s and 1900s.
>[deleted]
>> Why assassinate a politician or indiscriminately kill
>> people when an attack on electronic switching will
>> produce far more dramatic and lasting results? If the
>> new terrorism directs its energies toward information
>> warfare, its destructive power will be exponentially
>> greater than any it wielded in the past -- greater
>> even than it would be with biological and chemical
>> weapons. The single successful one could claim many
>> more victims, do more material damage, and unleash far
>> greater panic than anything the world has yet
>> experienced.
>> http://jya.com/pothot.txt (30 kb)
>
>
><sigh>
>Am I being unreasonable to expect at least a certain degreee of logic in the
>world? Why is it that this guy (Laqueur) seems to believe that the future
>is filled with "greater panic than anything the world has yet experienced."
>I believe that, while there may be panic, it'll be panic on the part of the
>politicians, not ordinary citizens. I suppose a certain amount of bias is
>to be expected, seeing as how it's Foreign Affairs magazine.
A good representation of postmodern paranoia...the ingredients: a mind
somewhat boggled by the extent of change (and the extent of awareness of
change) occasioned by the 'information revolution,' a growing awareness of
the fragile interdependence of control systems, and (this is the clincher)
an inability to trust the intentions of the vast conspiratorial World Outside.
--
Jon Lebkowsky <[email protected]> FAX (512)444-2693 http://www.well.com/~jonl
Electronic Frontiers Forum, 6PM PDT Thursdays <http://www.hotwired.com/eff>
"No politician can sit on a hot issue if you make it hot enough."--Saul Alinsky