A while ago, this news story went around about an Italian comedian making a joke about the Pope, and the Pope getting angry about it and calling the comedian a terrorist. I was going to write a blog post about it, but I decided to cancel it, 'cause I didn't really have anything insightful to add. I was going to muse on the definition of the term "terrorist", but I didn't have a hook to make my post much more interesting than reading the dictionary. More recently, Bruce Schneier wrote an article on terrorism which got featured in Wired magazine and is going around the blogosphere, and it gave me a new focus the topic: Who are the terrorists?

Who desires to strike as much panic, fear and hysteria in the American public as possible? Who stands to profit the most from a country full of terrorized civilians? Who actively goes out of their way to frighten the common American from even setting foot outside of their own homes?

The media. They've been making money off of fear for years. Whether it's the link between rock and roll and satanism, violence and videogames, or liquids and bombs, the media has been pushing sensationalist stories to scare the shit out of the public.

Schneier points out that most of the so-called terrorists are incompetent idiots that would pose no greater harm to the public than a random drunkard, citing the example of a man who tried to destroy a bridge with a torch, or a group who tried to blow up the Sears Tower, but who forgot to actually acquire explosives or any weapons or any kind.

I don't think these nut jobs, with their movie-plot threats, even deserve the moniker "terrorist." But in this country, while you have to be competent to pull off a terrorist attack, you don't have to be competent to cause terror. All you need to do is start plotting an attack and -- regardless of whether or not you have a viable plan, weapons or even the faintest clue -- the media will aid you in terrorizing the entire population.

Bruce Schneier

Who is it that hates American's freedom? Who is it that wishes that all the liberties that Americans enjoy were gone forever? Who wishes for America to lose its democracy and become a police state? Who is actively working towards these goals?

The US government and big corporations (the two are essentially one and the same at this point). Who is publicly promoting imprisoning innocent civilians in Guantanamo Bay? Who is censoring your blog posts? Who is arresting you for asking questions they don't want raised? It's not the unshaven guys hiding in caves in some foreign country.

I don't want to call the media "terrorists" and I don't want to call Bush a "terrorist" and I don't want to call corporate America "terrorists". The reason I don't want to do this is because the term "terrorist" has a lot of emotional baggage, and I'm not looking for an emotional reaction to my statements. I'm looking for a rational one. "Terrorist" is just a label. Whether any of the above people are "terrorists" depends entirely on your definition of the term "terrorist".

If your definition of "terrorist" is "guys with turbans and AK47s", then no, Bush isn't a terrorist. But if your definition of "terrorist" is "People using terror as a weapon", or "people who hate the freedom that American citizens enjoy" or even "people who are doing the most harm to America", you might want to take a second look at Bush, the media and corporate America.

It's an interesting trick, these terrorists are employing. If I were more literate, surely I could find a George Orwell quote illustrating this exact same tactic. I'm not, so I'm going to make up a quote that vaguely sounds like something Orwell would have said and falsely attribute it to him.

If a window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone was certain to say that the terrorists had come in the night and done it, and when the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole country was convinced that the terrorists had thrown it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal.

The Government had promised a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, each working according to his capacity, the strong protecting the weak... Instead, they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling police roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.

Some of the animals remembered - or thought they remembered - that the Sixth Commandment decreed 'No animal shall kill any other animal.' And though no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the politicians or the police, it was felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this.

It had become usual to give the Corporation the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune. You would often hear one hen remark to another, 'Under the guidance of our Leader, the Corporation, I have laid five eggs in six days'; or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim, 'Thanks to the leadership of the Corporation how excellent this water tastes!

(Not) George Orwell