Bullies have always made people feel unsafe. Despots and dictators are what bullies become when they grow up, if they can. They lose patience quickly with opposition, or just get bored, and then get violent. Usually, lacking self-restraint, they don't get very far, but sometimes one comes along who can play a longer game.
When people feel unsafe there can be a physiolgical state-change popularly known as "fight-or-flight," in which we become hyper-vigilant and over-reactive, but also suggestible. A bully with moderate skills can then use this state to their advantage on individuals, groups, and even very large crowds, limited only by the delivery system.
In the old days it took a long time to establish, say, a political campaign, a newspaper, or an organized crime syndicate. Generations in some cases. Public Opinion was sluggish, it had a lot of inertia, elections were fairly simple at the speed of gossip. Big changes, like salacious revelations about a candidate, could change the outcome quickly, but not very often.
There was a rhythm measured in years, that had to run its course. A Gandhi would have to walk all over India, gathering large crowds. A Hitler would have to make a lot of loud stadium speeches. Then there could be revolution or all-out war.
Eventually, in the early part of the 20th century, broadcast technology sped things up, but feedback was still slow. The scale of connection went up, from enough people to run a protection racket or a numbers game, to the size of a national TV audience.
In the early part of the 21st century, the scale of connection went up from enough people to sell a lot of hula-hoops, to everyone with a cellphone. Now billions of people can be terrorized in minutes, and their reactions read almost immediately. The public is more lively now, reacting like a kitten chasing a laser-pointer.
In 2016 this was rather clumsy and poorly managed, mainly because of signal-to-noise ratio, by hinting at nuclear war with North Korea. In 2025 it's slightly subtler, dangling draconian trade tariffs and jerking them away. It's a rollercoaster, and feedback is easily sorted by demographic. The public can be played like a calliope, producing contrapuntal levels of terror across a broad spectrum.
It doesn't take AI to keep the public confused and off balance. In fact, AI can't hack it, it has no lived experience, much less an abusive childhood. It takes the feral instincts of a mature bully, surfing the waves of revulsion in real time. The struggle for control of this apparatus is intensifying, as it must, coming out of beta with such awesome stats. But those who write the code have a different skillset from those who operate it. Those who can operate it are down to about one, just now, with joystick in hand.
But as yet nobody can possibly know the real balance of power. We're in uncharted waters. The real balance of power is constantly churning, among the donors, sycophants, pushers, psychopaths and cult fanatics always to be seen near the center of inflammation. But also internally, urgently, many other levers of power vie for attention. Nobody was ever given this much power, to wield with impunity. No king or emperor in history. The limits are unknowable. Congress, the Judiciary, and oh yes, We the People, stand outside, looking in. In the glare of the various fires now raging out of control, the windows have all gone dark.
There is a way to respond to all this. Simple, but not easy.
It helps to understand, not just what drives a bully, the pathologies involved, but the autonomic (automatic) state of terror, in which we're all immersed. It isn't an individual state. It's like language, it can't exist outside relationship. It's social, collective, communal.
That's what makes it so overwhelming, after all: who are you really scared for? If you have kids, you know this assault isn't on persons, it's on what makes them real people, their families and friends and communities. Their networks of relationship. That's what's being shredded now.
The simple part is that I don't have to understand much to see this condition in myself. And that seeing, changes it from something I am, to something I have. Right away, it ceases to be the only important issue in my world; it now shows up among all the other stuff I have, and now it's different, it isn't quite so compelling, it loses its grip on my guts. It's kind of small and annoying, actually. Who needs this sh*t? I got things to do.
And this, too, is not confined to individuals. It spreads through our personal networks. Sometimes it seems to come from elsewhere. Wherever it arises, things tend to loosen up and calm down, not only with me, but with those around me. And they're a big part of why I was so upset in the first place, after all. And they're worried about me, too.
That's the simple part; the not-easy part is that this doesn't change the situation. There's still a rabid dog or whatever in my space. But now it's something to deal with appropriately. Now I can see openings, flaws, weaknesses, even that banality we've read about.
Last thing, I learned this from Four Arrows: in the face of fear, an act of generosity (a virtue) is called for. I might be at the end, the end of me. If so, I still have the final word on how I make my exit. I'm not about to give that up.
That action (and you will know what to do) is what puts this soul-freezing fear in perspective, where I can look at it squarely, and move something, like a full human being.
The dictionary (whatever dictionary is in my computer) defines Terrorism:
terrorism - noun the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. ORIGIN late 18th century (in reference to the rule of the Jacobin faction during the period of the French Revolution known as the Terror): from French terrorisme, from Latin terror (see terror).
terror - noun 1. extreme fear: the use of terror to intimidate people, especially for political reasons; a person or thing that causes extreme fear.... ORIGIN: late Middle English: from Old French terrour, from Latin terror, from terrere... frighten.
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