I think it's important for us to know what the people in wordorigins want for fear of terrorists to mean.
Now that's cutting to the quick of it, TEd Rem!
Fear of terrorism, and by extension fear of those who perpetrate it, is not a phobia in a country on "orange" alert. It is a state-sponsored, state-sanctioned state of mind.
You might even go so far as to say that the state and the public state of mind are of one mind on this. Fear of terrorism is a civic duty, if not an act of patriotism.
One might argue that an "orange" alert, or even the more ubiquitous "yellow" alert, is not a generator of fear, it is only a call for a heightened awareness of suspicious circumstances.
But what is it that the public is to be suspicious of 24/7?
People plotting deadly, indiscriminate harm to innocent men, women and children in virtually every major street of every major city, and, in particular, at every major public event where throngs are packed together so tight any false alarm might trigger a stampede potentially as deadly as any actual act of terrorism.
Is such a state of mind irrational? Only if you impute that irrationality to the state of mind of the state which sanctions or sponsors it.
