All entries for Monday 25 September 2006

Fear and terror

Somewhat ironically, the one day we get out of work before 7, there happened to be a bomb scare on the train which meant I might as well have stayed for another half hour getting some more research done. Instead I spent 20 idly considering Wembly stadium whilst waiting for some stupid fool to reclaim his bag. It lead me to consider 1) it’s not actually an unattractive stadium, in fact it seems something of a shame to waste of good architecture to use it for sport; and 2) do people really feel threatened by terrorism?

Now although one gentleman was concerned enough to pull the communication cord (I’m probably showing my age in the use of that term…) no one on the carriage looked at all worried, just irritated in a resigned fashion. Yet from what the papers say regarding opinion polls, we’re all terrified of the the possibility of another “7/7”.

Which leads me to ask, is it possible to distinguish between the emotional fear one has when confronted with, say, a burglar in the wardrobe; and the intellectual fear one has of a perceived potential material threat- i.e. the worry that there might be a burglar in the wardrobe. Or are they merely variations in intensity in the same phenomenon?

Jonathan Jones : 25 Sep 2006 19:32 |  Tags: Pondering Terrorism Trains |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem