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Why terrorism works, and what we can do about it

> Why our best defence is to live our lives

Rebecca Peterson
Staff Writer

 

was seven years old when I

walked into my living room
before school and saw the World
Trade Center fall on TV.

My house was right under a
flight path, not too far from YVR,
so all morning I heard planes
flying low overhead, desperate
to land. In class, children who
didn’t know much about the world
discussed what had happened in
hushed whispers. The teachers all
looked grim. That night, I asked
my parents if Vancouver was going
to be attacked next.

This is why terrorism works.

Safety, security, and control.
These are all invisible things
that humans have a deep-seated
need to feel comfortable in their
daily lives. When war breaks out
overseas, we can tell ourselves
that we are safe. When acts of
terrorism happen in “third world”
countries, we can tell ourselves
that it will not happen to us. It is
far, far more likely that you will be
hurt or killed driving your car to
or from work or school every day
than it is for you to be killed ina

terrorist attack, but car crashes
do not create the same pervasive
atmosphere of fear that terrorist
acts thrive off of.

Terrorism has two goals: to
scare us, yes, but also to divide
us. Terrorism serves to create
a stigma, a strawman that we
can point to. After the attacks
in Brussels, many were quick to
leap to the phrase “Radical Islam”
as a target for righteous rage,
even turning a wary eye on
the Syrian refugees we've
finally opened our
borders to. “Not
every Muslim is a
terrorist,” some
have argued,

“but any
Muslim could
be.”

Any
Muslim,
certainly. Any
Christian
as well. Any
Atheist, any
Canadian, any
American. The
world is a broad
place with many
horrible people in
it. In the history of

where my family is from, terrorists
were white Catholics
convinced they
were fighting
to regain
their
country.
And
my
family,
also
made
up
of

  
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Image via thinkstock

white Catholics, feared and hated
them the same as any other sane
person caught in the middle of a
bloody war would.
In my mind, it’s easy to go to
the Troubles in Ireland in the
‘6os and ‘7os as a point of access
to the plight that many Muslims
are caught up in today. The Syrian
refugees that many seem to enjoy
pointing fingers and crying “ISIS”
at are running from the murderers
who attacked Brussels, Istanbul,
Ankara, Paris, and so many
other places. Asa friend of mine
told me recently, many Muslims
do not call ISIS by that name
as they do not consider them
Islamic—rather, they call them
“Daesh,” another acronym of
the group’s Arabic name that
closely resembles words such
as “Daes” and “Dahes,” meaning
“one who crushes something
underfoot” and “one who sows
discord.” Given that Daesh
has threatened to cut out the
tongues of anyone who calls
them such, it’s safe to say that
this is not the sentiment of a
people who support terrorists.
If we turn on each other out of
fear, and if we condemn a group
of people one billion members

How virtual reality will change our world

> What this new technology means for the masses

Shea O’Grady
Contributor

 

y now, most of us are familiar

with the Oculus Rift, a virtual
reality (VR} headset that changes
your field of vision along with
the movements of your head and
provides users with an intense
visual and audio experience. But
what are the true implications of
this technology? At the moment,
most virtual reality headsets are
fairly expensive and not used for
much else other than gaming,
but as the technology becomes
increasingly mainstream firms
have begun experimenting with
other exciting possibilities. This
is why I want to personally go on
record in 2016 with my prediction
that this is the future of the
Internet and the new face of our
social media.

The possibilities for VR are
literally endless. Perhaps one of
the most interesting VR projects
to date is the work being done at
the University of South Carolina,

 

where researchers are using
virtual reality technology to treat
PTSD symptoms in American
Veterans. The technology allows
therapists to expose soldiers to

a lifelike combat environment

in a controlled setting. This

study demonstrates the creative
possibilities and power of this tool
by asking us to imagine ourselves
in a digital environment that we
can navigate in the most human
way possible, similar to the way we
do in the real world.

But how will this technology
affect the masses? The first answer
is social media. Oculus Rift was
acquired by Facebook in March of

2014 with the intention of pairing
this technology with their social
platform. Last month, Facebook
announced a partnership with
Samsung, who has developed
their own VR headset that can be
used in conjunction with mobile
devices.

Imagine a form of Internet
powered by Facebook in which
you can find yourself in a
360-degree environment. You can
interact with other people in the
same environment as you, and
do it all in real time. This means
socializing online could look
something like it did pre-Internet.
A group of people actually getting
together and communicating in

Photo illustration

the same room, having a normal
conversation.

Another fascinating
opportunity for Facebook and VR
is the business implications. A
platform like this has the potential
to obliterate Skype and enhance
the ease of virtual organizations.
You could meet with clients or
coworkers in a digital boardroom
and give a presentation with
the tools literally encoded in to
your environment. Or perhaps
businesses may open VR internet
stores. Picture the future of
Amazon and e-commerce being
a similar experience to walking
through a store in the mall,
looking at products and displays.

strong for the actions of a few that
have co-opted their religion as

an excuse to murder and destroy,
then we are doing exactly what
terrorists wish us to do. There
were many Muslims working in
the Trade Center who died on
9/u. Many Irish Catholics were
among the thousands killed by
IRA members during the Irish
Troubles. Terrorist acts in the
name of one doctrine or another
have never discriminated between
their targets and those who they
claim to fight for. Pretending
otherwise is helping no one but
the terrorists themselves.

So what can we do?

We can reach out to one
another. We can refuse fear in the
face of such unimaginable idiocy.
We can laugh, we can go to school,
go to work, travel, and make
friends. We can open our arms to
people running from killers and a
war they did not choose, and we
can accept them without doubt
or suspicion. We can call “ISIS”
“Daesh,” and we can refuse those
who seek to turn us against each
other.

That is how we regain control.
And that is how we begin to feel
safe.

Although most VR headsets
carry with them a hefty price
tag, it’s interesting to see how
the technology is increasingly
becoming mainstream and
adapting to the mobile
marketplace. Beyond the
Samsung Gear VR which is built
specifically for Samsung mobile
phones, Google has created a
product that can turn almost
any smart phone into a virtual
headset. Google Cardboard is a
sort of VR headset and origami
hybrid. The incredibly simple
cardboard headset features a
compartment similar to a phone
case. The simple construction
and inexpensive materials of this
headset means that it has a price
of about $6, making it accessible
to the masses and easily integrated
with the mobile phone market.

Who knows how things will
look 5-10 years down the road. We
would all be wise to keep an eye
on VR as it develops. We might
soon find ourselves using it in our
daily lives and wondering how we
ever lived without it.