Murdered Sleep

photo: Laurent Errera from L'Union

There is too much intention in the flight path of the missing Malaysian Airlines jet for there to be any doubt of terrorism. First it makes a jagged turn off its normal course over the South China Sea toward the Strait of Malacca and then according to the analysis of radar makes a dramatic descent. Considering these facts, it’s surprising there’s a question that someone or thing was directing the plane off its normal trajectory. In most cases those responsible for terrorism whether it’s Al-Qaeda or some other group, quickly claim responsibility. It’s part of the political objective associated with the act. But perhaps the case of  MH 370 represents a new kind of terrorism geared at creating a higher level of fear. No one has obviously even hinted at responsibility. So can we be begin to think that the idea is to unleash anonymous terror? The plane has completely disappeared and what greater fear can there be than that of the abyss? Perhaps the new terrorism resides in producing the fear that there will be successions of events that can’t be explained or resolved. You won’t know when or where the next act of sabotage is coming from and there certainly will be no way of understanding it. The rational universe, a world where things make sense, is an antidote to chaos. It’s the reason readers find solace in detective novels and police procedurals. We know that the criminals will be apprehended. We know there are going to be scourges which will kill innocent people. We can predict suicide bombings in certain trouble spots. We can predict certain fault lines in the earth’s crust and the affect of climate change on sea levels. At least we know the etiology. We’ve made our bed and now must sleep in it. This new brand of anonymous terror is guaranteed to murder sleep.