The risk of being a terror victim underlies the fact that
most Americans consider terrorism to be the number one threat facing the
country.
San Bernardino catapulted what had been a general, somewhat
vague worry into an intense concern.
Fear of another terror attack reached poll numbers not seen since the
immediate aftermath of 9/11. Yet, on a
risk scale, the chances of an American becoming a terror victim remain infinitesimally
small. Yes, fourteen people were killed
by radical islamist terrorists in California.
But we live in a land of three hundred thirty million. The chances of dying in an accident caused by
a drunk driver, for instance, are much greater.
The number dying from such a cause was 10,076 in 2013.
Those statistical realities undoubtedly had a role in what
was viewed as the White House’s tardy recognition of the widespread alarm
across America about the San Bernardino massacre.
Plainly – no surprise here – President Obama doesn’t
understand human nature. Human kind is
genetically programmed to exaggerate threats to existence. Maybe that’s why our species, unlike
dinosaurs, still populates the earth.
This is not merely informal speculation.
Modern studies make this aspect of human behavior undeniable (an
excellent summary is found in David Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, a readable, present day classic on human
psychology).
Statistics don’t matter to most people when viewing a risk
to survival. But that doesn’t mean their
fears should be dismissed as being illogical or unfounded. They are not.
Fatal accidents are, and always have been, a fact of
life. Most of us ignore them, whether
riding in a car or airplane. But acts of
intentional harm are another matter.
From a practical perspective, that risk cannot be avoided. We can choose to stay out of dangerous
neighborhoods, but do we need to fear a party at work in a middle class area,
with the evil doers looking for us? Now
we do.
So we fear the terrorist more than the drunk driver. It’s a human reaction.
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