Life Has Become One Long Security Line: Terror Has Already Changed Us

From Richard Fernandez:

The Independent offers predictable advice to the British public after a terror bombing attack on a concert for teenage girls in Manchester that left more than 20 killed and 3 score mutilated and crippled for life. The writers confidently assert that "there's only one way Britain should respond to attacks such as Manchester. That is by carrying on exactly as before." 

They themselves may do so if they wish but there may be a scarcity of followers. The latest in a line of phrases like "we can't let hatred change us; this is not who we are etc" sound like the pleadings of a cult leader to the faithful after the Mothership failed to arrive. The faithful are heading for the door. 

In fact the pixels were hardly dry on the computer monitors when the Independent itself reported panic as hundreds ran from real or imagined peril inside a Manchester shopping mall. Terror has already changed us in ways ranging from the gradual collapse of the Schengen area, intrusive inflight security including a ban on electronic devices in flight to the inevitable tightening of security at all future concerts and exhibitions. 

If there's one thing Ariana Grande will have at future concerts it's security grande. Even the virtual world which once promised to be the frontier of freedom has become a hacker-haunted place. Your phone now spies on you. Mass surveillance is ubiquitous. Passwords to your social media accounts can be demanded at borders.

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