In telling an entire academic community about any given threat to their peace, you’ve already carried out the most important aspect of what can be defined as instilling terror: namely, that the social relationships betwixt us become shadowed by the fear and anxiety of our precarious human world— one that easily suffers and will eventually perish. The terror begot from this bathroom stall message only gains power through your information distribution.

Let us assess the Green Street gun threat from last year: there were cops everywhere, helicopters, paddy wagons, ninja police, etc. and they all focused their energy and resources to stop the potential shooting from occurring- or, as we now say, they were in place to stop ‘terrorism’. Is this to say that the community was safe from terror? In my travels along Green St. that night, every single person I passed seemed to be talking about the “what ifs” and “why fors.” But why for? Why are strangers becoming increasingly afraid to look at each other- or talk to each to each other- or help each other? The fears from ‘terrorism’ that we experience arise ONLY after we create an enemy. Therefore we feel the need to destroy this enemy. But this stints our ability to internalize a sense of community or to develop a symbiotic relationship with our natural surroundings, because everyone is a potential enemy. We’ve lost touch with nature, and with our nature, and thus we hide behind material possessions, media blogs, and ipods. T.S. Elliot: “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.” So let it be.

Colin Talor,

senior in LAS