Since 9/11 we’ve all been forced to submit to security procedures that, 11 years ago, nearly all of us considered unreasonable intrusions on our liberty and privacy, all in the name of safety, aka Security Theater
That, I think, is the real measure of what terrorism does to a free society. It’s not the bombs or the airplanes that hurt us most, but the gradual intrusions into personal freedom that are implemented in response to those threats. Little by little, the freedom of movement we once knew is being chipped away and, in the event that we ever again face a mass terrorist attack with catastrophic loss, the stage will have been set for a ramp up in “security procedures” that will make America an unrecognizable shell of its former self.