From: Jon Lebkowsky <jonl@well.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 00:41:36 +0800
To: jim bell <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: POT_hot
Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960903115927.006b2548@mail.well.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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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 <jonl@hotwired.com>  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