Afraid of the Fear of Terror

From Der Spiegel:

One of Mozart's operas been taken off the playlist at Berlin's State Opera for fear of a terrorist attack. It's a shocking example of pre-emptive surrender: At this point, it seems, terrorists don't even need to issue a specific threat in order to intimidate us.
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Representatives of other religions, of course, are a bit more relaxed when they become an object of ridicule or malice. No Catholic authority got upset when Cologne's Cardinal Meisner was represented as an inquisitor who burns women at the stake. German Chancellor Angela Merkel didn't send out any hit squads either when she became the object of sexist caricatures in Mainz.

But during this year's Carnival festivities -- a time when, traditionally, no taboo is respected as long as overstepping it raises a laugh - Cologne's famed carnival societies decided to take no risks and do without jokes about Islam and Muslims. And so the festivities remained untainted by violence.

It was no great loss for the freedom of opinion, but it was another step in the direction of preventive surrender. When it comes to cultural events -- as opposed to politics -- fear is a potent weapon. At this point, no specific threat of violence seems even to have been needed. One "risk analysis" was enough, and the citation of concrete facts wasn't necessary either. Fear takes care of the rest.