Remember Baader-Meinhof?

When I was growing up in 1970s Sweden, we feared "the Russians". Every time we heard the noise of a low-flying plane in my village we'd say, half-jokingly, half-nervously, "The Russians must be coming". Then of course we remembered the Finns were between them and us and would probably get clobbered first, so we'd breathe a sigh of relief and get on with our lives.
What we also feared was Baader-Meinhof.

What?? Who?? The Baader-Meinhof gang, run by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, among others, was also known as the Red Army Faction and, founded in 1970, they carried out some 300 bombings, assassinations and other acts of terrorism, over almost three decades. An extensive campaign of terror, in other words. Mention them now and who knows who they were, who remembers a single thing about these individuals who struck fear in people far beyond their own national borders (Germany) only a few decades ago?

When I moved to London in 1990, many Londoners were living in fear of the IRA and bomb scares were such a regular occurrence on the underground, in shopping centres and elsewhere that you began to become blasé about it. Almost. But not quite, because the threat was real, there were actual bombings and you never knew when or where they would occur. You just lived with that fear and incorporated it into your life and psyche. I don't know how many times I was "evacuated" back in those days, traipsing solemnly off trains or out of shops with the rest of the crowd.

We don't fear the IRA anymore and we've just about calmed down about Al Qaeda, the next organisation to strike fear across the world. We can "cope" with Boko Haram, because they feel far away enough, but then along comes IS, the next terror organisation to rock our world.
My heart bleeds for Paris right now. Yes, I know it should also bleed for all the other places torn apart by senseless violence, and it does, but it is human nature to bleed the most for what we know and love and, human as I am, I am guilty of that. I know Paris, I love Paris and I'm in pain thinking of that wonderful city, marred by such brutal acts of horrific violence.

IS may be better organised, better funded and more brutal than any terror organisation the world has seen to date, but ultimately its goals can never succeed. It may wreak unspeakable havoc during its reign of terror, it may cause far more damage than it has done to date, but as history has shown us time and again, a small group of twisted individuals - and it is comparatively small - will never rule the world. It never has and it never will, no matter how frightening and powerful it comes across. Why not? Because the vast majority of humanity is not like them and do not want what they want. I take comfort in that.