Memes of Destruction and Freelancing

One of the sad things that have come out of all the anti-US and anti-West feeling are a small stream of what I call freelancers. Seeming to be victims of emotional problems, they have picked up on the idea that it is a righteous act to strike out against the infidel (i.e., Americans, or American Jews or whatever target group they have focused on) and in acting out the violence in their illnesses, they can cause quite a bit of mayhem, even though they are not officially connected to any known terrorist group.

We have seen two cases of it recently: the man who recently attacked people in Seattle and yesterday's attacks on pedestrians in San Francisco. In both cases these were caused by people with Asian Islamic roots, and both seem to have been troubled men.

Do we call these people terrorists? Their purpose was to strike out in a terroristic way against their perceived enemies, but do they count, or are they merely victims of the memes of destruction, that cultural concept that the Jews, the Americans, the Westerners are inherently the bad guy, and thus become the focal point for their behavior? And if we choose to say no, when does a deranged act cease being an act of the mentally ill, and become true political terrorism?

Do Malvo and John Muhammed count, with their intentional sniping of people in Baltimore, acts intentionally meant to terrorize? Or do you need to be even more organized, more politically motivated?

Just a thought. How do we protect ourselves against the memes of destruction? How do we keep ourselves safe from those who pick up on the anger and hate-based politics running rampant in the world today?

Questions I don't have answers to.