I was working on my own thoughts about the Boston non-bombing incident when Adam Mordaxus said everything I wanted to say, only better. For example:

My summary: Cartoon Network puts up magnetic signs with blinking LEDs advertising some cartoon in ten cities, including Boston. Photo of one of these in Cambridge is the accompaning photo. After two to three weeks, people in Boston notice them and think, “Oh, my God! Blinking lights, wires! It must be (cue organ) terrorists!” They shut down half the city. They postured, they arrested the perps.

This brouhaha is worthy of ridicule for two reasons. First, they were embarrassingly wrong. Second, they were two weeks late! Comparing Boston’s Finest to the Keystone Kops is a grave insult to the memory and bravery of those immortal boys in blue.

Ridicule is exactly the right word. Read what he said. Read what Schneier said (and don’t miss Schneier’s comments–there’s loads of excellent points in there).

What I wonder is, are people scared because, even if they don’t want to admit it, they know deep down inside that their country has done things which have caused a lot of people to be justifiably pissed off at us? If you were to go into a bar and start talking trash and picking fights with everyone in the place, you wouldn’t be surprised if you found your drinks watery, your glass soapy, and your “empties” picked up even though they were still 3/4 full. Why should we expect to be treated any differently as a nation when we behave on the world stage in exactly the same way?

Fear has become the Great Excuse. You can act as irrationally as you want, so long as you claim you did it because you were scared it might be a terrorist. Unfortunately, there are still too many people who are willing to play along.

If you want to be scared, go watch a horror movie. Don’t try to turn lame “guerilla” advertising into a terrorist atttack. Don’t think that you’re at risk because you live downwind of the World’s Largest Ball of String. In other words, Get a Grip.

Some other random observations from this mess:

First, the Boston Police Department does not seem to learn from experience. I can understand overreacting to the first device, even if it took them two weeks to notice it. It was, at that point, an unknown threat so some level of caution is understandable. Upon initial examination, however, they would have discovered that it was not, in fact, a bomb. So why did they continue to overreact to each additional device?

Next, Some people want to be scared (and I’m not one of them). Despite quite happily living my life as a frequent bearer of bad news, I don’t want to be scared. What I don’t understand, however, is what drives people to constantly assume that everything out of the ordinary is some sinister threat. Are people’s lives really that devoid of mental stimulation*?

People need to lay off the “24″ and get out into the world more. They might even discover that it’s filled with friendly, interesting people if they just don’t act like a paranoid asshole toward anyone who doesn’t look just like them.

Finally, the price of being scared is not worth it. I value things like civil liberties a hell of a lot more than I value your life or even mine. I use them every day, and one of the ways I do so is by refusing to buy into the culture of fear that seems to dominate some people’s thinking. This is a hard concept for a lot of people to get their heads around, since it requires rational thinking about risk.

Thanks, and while I’m happy to take credit for my co-blogger’s work, the article was by Mordaxus, not me.

oops…corrected accordingly.