That's How It Happened

People were back on the Tube today in force. If they were nervous, they were tough enough not to show it. I'm a little bit ashamed by what Ian McEwan wrote in the Guardian:

"We have been savagely woken from a pleasant dream. The city will not recover Wednesday's confidence and joy in a very long time. Who will want to travel on the tube, once it has been cleared? How will we sit at our ease in a restaurant, cinema or theatre? And we will face again that deal we must constantly make and remake with the state - how much power must we grant Leviathan, how much freedom will we be asked to trade for our security?"

I couldn't disagree more. Just as we "never negotiate with kidnappers", I'm not about to concede any freedoms to terrorism. Nor am I going to renounce my confidence and joy. Sure I'm sad for the casualties and their families, but I'm not about to let terrorism change me one bit. Any response to terrorism merely validates and legitimizes it as a political intervention. As of tomorrow I'm resuming normal "trivial blogging".