<3 London
First, I hope that everyone in Britain on my friends list is okay. I hope that your families and loved ones are all right, too.
The bombings were the first thing on the news this morning. Hell of a thing to wake up to. Why do these things always happen first thing in the morning? Or why do I always wind up hearing about them first thing in the morning?
I don't get it. I seriously, truly just don't get it. Terrorism is only effective in the immediate sense- that is, when you're involved in a bombing or something, you might panic or something. What about after people calm down? I was watching BBC World a little while ago, and in all the video they showed of Londoners this afternoon, people were quietly walking to wherever they had to go. There was no mass hysteria, no fear, no breakdown of their system or society. If that's the aftermath of a terrorist attack, then what the hell is the point of doing it in the first place?
Obviously, the public reaction increases or decreases depending on the scale of the incident itself. But even for gigantic things like September 11th... shit, the rest of the country went on doing what it was doing the day before, even if New York and Washington were shut down. No one hid in their houses for days on end. Day to day life didn't change at all unless you were directly involved. Well, things changed, but the country didn't go straight to hell (unless you count the Patriot Act. And I highly doubt that the terrorists' aim was to push that piece of legislation through.)
Does it suck? Yeah. Big time. Is it upsetting? Of course it is. Bombs, attacks, death tolls; all of those things and everything that accompanies them is scary and disconcerting.
But these are the British, for god's sake. One of the toughest, most defiant, self-controlled, muddle-through-anything-and-come-out-on-top groups of people in the entire world. That really says something for the intellegence of the terrorists. Namely, that if they're trying to terrorize someone, they're better off picking people who would be easily terrorized. Fucktards. God.
I don't know. I'm kind of upset, in a weird, peripheral sort of way. Maybe I'm more disturbed than upset. The whole thing just reminds me of the strange times we live in, where nothing is simple and everything is hopelessly screwed up. I can't see any ways to fix this. Sometimes I find myself wishing that the doomsayers are right and these are the Last Days or whatever, just so everything will end and the stupid pointless violence will stop. Thoughts like that just make me cynical and bitter. I hate feeling like that.
Please excuse my rambling. I feel all mixed up.
The bombings were the first thing on the news this morning. Hell of a thing to wake up to. Why do these things always happen first thing in the morning? Or why do I always wind up hearing about them first thing in the morning?
I don't get it. I seriously, truly just don't get it. Terrorism is only effective in the immediate sense- that is, when you're involved in a bombing or something, you might panic or something. What about after people calm down? I was watching BBC World a little while ago, and in all the video they showed of Londoners this afternoon, people were quietly walking to wherever they had to go. There was no mass hysteria, no fear, no breakdown of their system or society. If that's the aftermath of a terrorist attack, then what the hell is the point of doing it in the first place?
Obviously, the public reaction increases or decreases depending on the scale of the incident itself. But even for gigantic things like September 11th... shit, the rest of the country went on doing what it was doing the day before, even if New York and Washington were shut down. No one hid in their houses for days on end. Day to day life didn't change at all unless you were directly involved. Well, things changed, but the country didn't go straight to hell (unless you count the Patriot Act. And I highly doubt that the terrorists' aim was to push that piece of legislation through.)
Does it suck? Yeah. Big time. Is it upsetting? Of course it is. Bombs, attacks, death tolls; all of those things and everything that accompanies them is scary and disconcerting.
But these are the British, for god's sake. One of the toughest, most defiant, self-controlled, muddle-through-anything-and-come-out-on-top groups of people in the entire world. That really says something for the intellegence of the terrorists. Namely, that if they're trying to terrorize someone, they're better off picking people who would be easily terrorized. Fucktards. God.
I don't know. I'm kind of upset, in a weird, peripheral sort of way. Maybe I'm more disturbed than upset. The whole thing just reminds me of the strange times we live in, where nothing is simple and everything is hopelessly screwed up. I can't see any ways to fix this. Sometimes I find myself wishing that the doomsayers are right and these are the Last Days or whatever, just so everything will end and the stupid pointless violence will stop. Thoughts like that just make me cynical and bitter. I hate feeling like that.
Please excuse my rambling. I feel all mixed up.