Random mass terror produces passive apathy rather than resistance in its victims.

Evidence

Never during the process of destruction did popular antisemitism become an active force. At most it is suggested that it obliquely contributed to the perpetration of mass murder by inducing the apathy with which most Germans viewed the fate of the Jews when they knew of it, or resigned themselves to ignorance. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 115 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Sergent reckoned that “our only chance to swing in our favour a significant section of metropolitan opinion is to create a situation obliging the regime to react violently and discredit itself”. It was the traditional formula of the modern revolutionary terrorist, whether Tupamaros or Baader-Meinhof, and — as so often happens — it was to produce quite the opposite results from those desired by Sergent. Over the six months, culminating in February, that the main O.A.S. offensive in France lasted, it was to do as much as anything else to tilt French sympathies towards de Gaulle’s acceptance of a precipitate withdrawal from Algeria. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1523 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Seen in perspective, the domestic War on Terror is not really about keeping Americans safe as much as it is about creating a spectacle of fear. During the Cold War, schools routinely conducted “duck and cover” drills in which students and teachers hid under tables, supposedly to protect them from a blast in the event of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. Whatever the marginal benefits of ducking under a table, the ability to survive a nuclear bomb depends on one’s distance from the blast, not on the furniture. The real goal of such activities was to keep the threat of attack alive and to foster fear and paranoia. In the War on Terror era, color-coded “terror threat levels” (ultimately phased out in 2011) and “if you see something, say something” signs in airports and subway stations have served a similar purpose by generating the spectacle of terrorism. And mainstream media coverage of “foiled terror plots” orchestrated by the law enforcement community only serves to reinforce this atmosphere. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 484 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Revolutionary terror designed to discredit the state often backfires into sympathy for the state. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1523; Totalitarian terror peaks when resistance has already vanished; Total terror emerges only after opposition is already defeated (+4 more)

Related

• Revolutionary terror designed to discredit the state often backfires into sympathy for the state. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Revolutionary terror designed to discredit the state often backfires into sympathy for the state. #complicates (0.78) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1523
• Popular antisemitism contributed to the Holocaust chiefly through induced apathy. #exemplifies (0.78) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 115
• Totalitarian terror peaks when resistance has already vanished #qualifies (0.75)
• Total terror emerges only after opposition is already defeated #qualifies (0.75)
• Domestic war on terror functions as a manufactured spectacle of fear rather than safety #expands (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 484
• Terrorism fear uniquely suits political manipulation because it resists quick fixes #expands (0.72)
• OAS terror backfired by accelerating rather than wrecking the peace negotiations. #complicates (0.70)