"People treat terrorism as if its a plague or a gigantic battle for our survival. When you put terrorism in context the risk it poses is miniscule. The number of people that have died from terrorism in every part of the world since 1960 has been less than the number of people who have drowned in their bathtubs in the US alone since that time period. To put it in perspective totally preventable medical mistakes, that could be avoided by spending a little extra on IT in healthcare, cost 100,000 lives in the US alone every year.

Yet ask someone who's the biggest threat to our society, terrorists or doctors who resist submitting to an objective review, and I think the answer will be clear.

Which is where Tyler Durden comes in. Instead of taking our rage at our own dead end lives out through fight clubs, we're doing it through jingoism and treating terrorism as some sort of "grave threat." Hell just look at a electoral map, the people who are most likely to elect politicians based on terrorism as their top priority aren't in areas that are most threatened like New York City, California or DC, they're people that live in Texas, Ohio and upstate New York. People in the suburbs who have already settled down and felt the dissapointment in their lives set in.

But the way to fill up this void exists in terrorism and being an arm chair general. No longer are you Lester Bernham from 123 Oak St. whose working a dead end job with kids that hate you, you are citizen of the United States, of the Western World, fighting against a fierce enemy who seeks to destroy everything you know. Never mind that your "fighting" consists of watching Fox News, putting an American flag on your car, and calling everyone who doesn't favor war a pussy. Also never mind that this "fierce enemy" is a paper tiger, there's probably not enough terrorists in the world to fill up a minor league baseball stadium, and you're more likely to be killed driving on your way to the store to buy duct tape and American flags than you are by a terrorist.

The real failure of Western Civilization doesn't have anything to do with preventing terrorism, the real failure is the completely irrational ways that people react to it. We've signed up for perpetual war and tyranny because of an enemy that barely even exists. Hell, I'd be much more scared if Belgium went to war with us, than I am of every single possible terrorist threat. The only explanation for this complete lack of reason and common sense is an existentialist failure. People in America, hell people everywhere, can only be happy once they shed their individuality and submit to some grand movement. We need a great war or a great depression or else we feel worthless. It reminds me of Eric Hoffer's The True Believer.

In actuality most people secretly squeal with delight when terrorists acts happen. And why not, a bunch of people that you don't even know or have a single connection to just died. But for the next few weeks you get to play insightful philosopher, geopolitical analyst, politician, detective and general. A real respite from the toils of modern life."

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