Overblown
The subtitle of the book sums it up pretty well: “How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them”. A decent book. It really pointed out how ridiculous the fear of terrorism is. The chances of dying in a terrorist attack are microscopic. For example, you are much more likely to die in automobile crash, so why don’t we have a “war on auto accidents”?. The book also goes through similar historical examples, such as the communist scare during the cold war. One point the author makes, which I completely agree with, is that you can never get rid of terrorism. Just like you can never completely get rid of crime. Terror is simply a tactic. The best thing you can do is to fight “terror” itself, which means stop the overreactions and unjustified fears resulting from terrorism.
A pretty quick read and quite interesting. Puts a lot of things in perspective.
