Beware the prolonged hidden costs that terror attacks saddle us with
insurance premiums, lowering of investor confidence in a country seen to be dangerous, and the psychological impact of all-pervasive surveillance and security measures, apart from its corrosive effect on democracy, are all incalculably costly in the long run. On top of this is the loss of velocity of virtually all movement, be it of goods, people or money, congealing the flow of the global economy. Aircraft have lower utilization because of security delays, cash registers in malls slow, and there is a ‘security surcharge’ that we pay.
It is like throwing a handful of sand into a well-oiled machine. Many measures that are deemed necessary are not necessarily effective. Fifteen years later, barring airports and perhaps a few government installations, anti-terror measures are largely a farcical ritual that do not really improve security.
Take, for example, the ritual of checking of cars before entering hotels or malls. The mechanistic action of opening the vehicle’s hood and trunk and running a mirror under and a dog along its sides achieves nothing. Yet, this rite happens millions of times every day.
Likewise, every man, woman and child being frisked before being allowed into a public place is irrelevant; all the attackers of 26/11 actually stormed into their target hotels firing weapons. The next terror attack will not follow previous attack vectors, and yet, once a ritual has begun, it is nigh impossible for it to be stopped or rationalized. This phenomenon is not unique to the government.
All major organizations have similar rituals created in an erstwhile era for an erstwhile purpose. Yet, over time, these pointless rituals attain sacrosanct status, beyond questioning. Despite seismic social changes and the advent of
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