The sorrow porn McFlail is getting old.
Here's the thing. It doesn't matter who blew up people at the Boston Marathon. I know we want it to make sense and to have an understanding of who what when and why - but we don't have to - what we need to do is address the national myths that bring us back to this flailing panicked blame game every time something bad happens.
More below the dooblydoo.
1. People blow shit up. We have ever since they discovered how to blow shit up. It's not new as a tactic, a pastime or a means to an end. Every major nation in the world has had shit blown up in it - well before the whole ehrmagherd terrerists mania hit after September 11.
2. I don't give a flying McFuck who did it. Not that I don't want to see justice served, but it doesn't actually matter. See 1. above.
3. We need to stop pretending that a nation can be "terrorist proof" because that's just a lie. We can try to avoid the biggies, we can have people in place as security, listen for intelligence, etc - but in the end - NO nation is "terrorist proof" because it's simply too easy to blow shit up. A kid with a chemistry set can blow shit up. A farmer or a janitor can blow shit up. It's not actually difficult.
4. Assuming we SHOULD be terrorist proof wastes a lot of time and energy. It causes people to have the freak outs and flail and worry and hand wring. It gives bloviating talking heads something to blather on about in between commercials. It creates a culture of fear - and we have had MORE than enough of that. Because no nation is "terror proof."
5. The flailing makes it MORE likely that people will try to blow shit up, because they get feedback - watching people flail. We need to just realise that people blow shit up. For reasons. We don't have to understand them. We don't need "closure." We don't need to freak out and give more press and attention to people who blow shit up.
6. You are much more likely to die in a car accident than someone blowing shit up - and most people die of lifestyle related diseases, not being blown up. Yes, loss of life is tragic. Yes, injury can be traumatic. It's shocking and scary and makes us feel uneasy. But we are adults, we can deal and we can help kids understand that 1. people blow shit up sometimes. But over all it's rare - and while scary, it's not very effective or common.
So chill out. Stop finger pointing and guessing and clinging to every talking heads rehash of what happened with more and more updates of the same old guessing and bullshit - because what happened is some shit blew up. People were hurt and killed - but given the number of people there at the time, it was pretty damn small and well handled.
So turn off the "news" and do something else for a while. Watch a movie. Read a book. Play a game. But don't turn this into another American tragedy pornfest, they're getting pretty old.
For the record, I grew up largely in Europe in the mid to late 70s and early to mid 80s - when shit and people were being blown up. Armed guards on the school bus. Daily backpack checks and quizzes before being allowed to board. Bomb curtains on one of my high schools. Weekly warnings about whether or not it was safe to go outside because of terrorist threats. Several bombs went off in Belgium and the UK when I was there - it was simply a fact of life, not a drama. So I have experience that leads me to say these things, not just smoke out my ass.