Fright vs. Terror: What’s the difference?

Everyone has known the feeling of fright but few of us have ever known true terror.  The differences between the two are vast.

When the doctor takes you into the consultation room to discuss the biopsy result, there is a feeling of fear.  When he sits down beside you, hand on your shoulder and says, “I am truly sorry; this is not good news,” then the fear factor ratchets up to a new level.  But it’s still not terror.

Cantor Fitzgerald’s offices were on the 101st-105th of One World Trade Center.  On September 11 there were 658 employees at the work and an unknown number of them looked out the windows of the North Tower and saw something unbelievable: an American Airlines 767 flying directly toward them.  It was approaching at 470 mph and it covered the last mile before impact in 7.6 seconds.  That’s long enough for unbelievable terror to grip everyone who saw what was happening.  No one at Cantor Fitzgerald survived, but for those not killed at impact, the terror could only have increased at they realized they were doomed.  What they experienced was far beyond fear; there was nothing left for them but death. Some chose to end it quickly leaping from the shattered windows, clinging to a fellow worker in the final seconds of their lives.  The others . . . we can only hope that it was quicker than it seemed to those who watched the fall of the building.  Terror . . . no other word describes it.

Our lives have not been the same since that terrible day.  We acknowledge awful things might happen on any time . . . but not to us.  Pearl Harbor shook our sense of invulnerability, but that was a long time ago.  Timothy McVeigh’s actions confirmed what we knew:  There are crazy people out there who will do insane things. September 11 was so complex in its conception and execution it caused a paradigm shift.  Terrorism could happen to any of us . . . at any time.

Those who think about such things began to realize that terror could come in an envelope of anthrax or something much less sophisticated.  The Department of Homeland Security has, at least in the minds of some, kept us safe.  Numerous plots, some so monumental in their stupidity, have lulled us into a sense of false security.  Some schemes have been well-thought out but poorly executed.  This latest was another near miss. It seems only a matter of time before some one fits all the pieces together and we have another disaster.

In a recent visit to New York we were surprised at the massive police presence in Times Square.  Regardless of the time of day or night, officers, patrol cars, and mounted police were all over the area.  One cab driver groused about “10,000 cops standing around and I’m paying them for doing nothing!” Well, last Saturday they earned their pay.  Although fear abounded for those evacuated from the area, there was no terror.

That’s one difference between fear and terror.  In the former, you have time to react; in the latter you are paralyzed by the event.  You may be powerless once it begins to unfold.

The facts are not in for this recent incident.  I suspect that will be unraveled quickly and Janet Napolitano may be correct (this time) if she announces the system worked.  I hope that it turns out to be an individual who acted on his own.  We will always have such people among us, but we can deal with them.

Of much more concern would be that the failed attack was hatched by a militant group who carried out their mission in response to a message from a god that any sane person would ignore.  There are no religions worthy of the name that condone such psychotic thinking.

We must not be too quick to judge, but certainly we can be fearful; we cannot let ourselves by paralyzed by the prospect of terror.  If that happens, whoever the perpetrator(s) is/are will have won.  We are too strong let that occur.