The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/the-boston-marathon-bombing-keep-calm-and-carry-on/275014/

By Bruce Schneier
The Atlantic
April 15, 2013

As the details about the bombings in Boston unfold, it'd be easy to be scared. 
It'd be easy to feel powerless and demand that our elected leaders do 
something -- anything -- to keep us safe.

It'd be easy, but it'd be wrong. We need to be angry and empathize with the 
victims without being scared. Our fears would play right into the 
perpetrators' hands -- and magnify the power of their victory for whichever 
goals whatever group behind this, still to be uncovered, has. We don't have to 
be scared, and we're not powerless. We actually have all the power here, and 
there's one thing we can do to render terrorism ineffective: Refuse to be 
terrorized.

It's hard to do, because terrorism is designed precisely to scare people -- 
far out of proportion to its actual danger. A huge amount of research on fear 
and the brain teaches us that we exaggerate threats that are rare, 
spectacular, immediate, random -- in this case involving an innocent child -- 
senseless, horrific and graphic. Terrorism pushes all of our fear buttons, 
really hard, and we overreact.

But our brains are fooling us. Even though this will be in the news for weeks, 
we should recognize this for what it is: a rare event. That's the very 
definition of news: something that is unusual -- in this case, something that 
almost never happens.

[...]


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