Rorret!

When is it terror, spelled backwards? Or when is it terror, in Pig Latin, Errorta? Goodness!

Yes. Mercy. Many brave Amercians are fixing to figure out how to define terror, or rorret or orretra, same difference, maybe.

OK. Seems like common sense should come into play. And yes. Common sense would naturally come into play, helping everyone out with an easy to understand yet practical definition of terror. If only common sense was real, rather than imaginary.

So forget common sense. Common sense will never help anybody define terror, or terrorist, or terrorism. Well, maybe some individuals can employ their own common sense to define terror to their own satisfaction. But that won’t do for everybody, the body politic, all the common dudas put together, the many people, the struggling, writhing, witless masses. Will it?

Back when the Soviet Union was the last hope of the white race, but already fizzling fast, the Bolsheviks decreed: The solution to the white terror is the red terror.

Yes. The whites were attacking the reds and also attacking the new institutions the reds were fixing to put in place. Yes. Those whites were assassinating, bombing, knifing, shooting, talking bad. You name it. Those whites were employing weapons, including swords, and bad talk to scare the reds and terrorize the masses.

So the reds said, OK, two can play at that game. Thus, the reds embarked upon a very successful campaign of state-sponsored terror, including public executions of whites caught in arms. Well. Also the reds publicly executed the friends and families of whites caught in arms. The state terror employed by the reds quickly snuffed out the whites despite the presence of imperialist forces attempting to protect the white terrorists.

But that was then, and this is now, maybe.

Holy crap! Well. Is it considered terror when he used his own airplane? You know yourself, he used his own private property.

Right there is a big difference between Norte Americanos and foreign peasants or tribepersons. An average American may actually own an airplane. So potentially, the average airplane owning American can fly a personally owned airplane into any building, any time, any where. Whereas, the ignorant foreign peasant or tribesperson must first steal an airplane. That’s a huge difference. Does everyone contemplate how huge that difference is?

Are we getting any closer to defining terror?

Hold it. Crumby’s skeered!

But what actually terrorizes Crumby? Understand, any fanciful examples of Crumby paralyzed by fear or terror should be politically well connected. Politics is the key to an understanding of actual terror. Yes. Terror is irrevocably intertwined with politics.

So the duda flying his airplane into the IRS building is fairly politically well connected, maybe. That’s because there is an organized anti-tax movement that does politics with a view to changing tax laws. Yet some anti-tax people advocate illegal activities, for example, tax evasion. If the movement scales up, now that they have a martyr, there is no telling what additional acts of possible terror those tax cheaters may envision.

Yes. Now the tax evaders, reformers or revolutionaries have a martyr, an example, and a means of protest that gets almost everybody’s attention, however briefly. (Man! Could Tiger Woods show just a little respect for the poor tax dodgers, do you think?). Plus, a good many of the anti-tax American tax cheats have probably purchased airplanes with the money they saved from tax avoidance. Look out!

Yet Crumby is not especially terrorized by this obvious, potential terrorist threat; the tax dodging neo-kamikazes. Maybe that’s because the IRS office is not especially close to the Cow Barn. Or maybe it’s because, Crumby’s first thought upon espying the neo-kamikaze news article was, Too bad he didn’t get mixed up and crash into the Burger Center football stadium.

Oh well. So what does terrorize Crumby? OK. Here is a hypothetical example. Crumby is camping out at Big Bend National Park. All of a sudden he hears gunfire. Mercy! Crumby investigates. Bad boys in brown shirts are using snakes and such for target practice. Goodness! And nobody will fix to stop them except Crumby.

Why must Crumby stop them? Easy that, environmental laws go unenforced in the Tejas Republico duh Booblico. That’s right. The cops, the rangers, the game wardens will do their best to ignore the use of snakes and such for target practice in a national park. So in this hypothetical situation, succoring the snakes and such is up to Crumby. That scares Crumby a lot. Those gun thugs scare Crumby. They could shoot Crumby before Crumby shoots them.

Of course, in this example, the key ingredient is a general disrespect for law and order. Yes. Where does terror thrive? Easy that, terror may thrive in precisely those parts where the people hold law and order or peace and quiet in disrespect. Yes. Remember, there are too many people and most of them are no damn good. Also, the ones that are no damn good, and even some of the good ones that go crazy are willing to break various laws or disturb the peace because they don’t respect the law. These generally lawless elements are liable to eventually give up on mere criminality in favor of genuine terrorism, terrorist activity or just plain terror. But to do that, to make that transition, the criminals shall need to undertake some serious politics.

But what the heck is terror? And is a person espousing a fair flat tax on the road to a terrorist lifestyle or way of life? Find out anon, maybe.