There is a line in the movie "Gandhi" that explains the interrelationship of the state's increasing resort to draconian measures and its continuing loss of authority. When the British initiated even harsher police-state practices in response to India's efforts for independence, Gandhi remarked: "it shows how desperate they are."
Such is the case with recent American and British government responses to make-believe "terrorist" threats. The state has, for a number of decades, been losing its credibility and, hence, its authority over those it would rule. If the boobeoisie is to be kept cowering at the feet of its Super-Daddy protectors, it must be kept in constant fear of those "others" who are waiting to victimize any who stray from the herd. Hollywood horror-film producers learned, a long time ago, that the most powerful fear-object is that which cannot be fully seen, but whose presence is implicated in dark shadows and scary music.
Like the morons who offer the change-of-pace of a televised car chase, the system can - as was apparently the recent cases at JFK, London, and Glasgow - count on some teenaged nitwits to play roles that will get them Andy Warhol's promise of momentary fame. There is a symbiotic relationship between the "terrorists" - be they of the well-trained or amateur variety - and the state. This is the lesson we all need to learn, lest we be forever kept huddled under our blankets with the bedroom light left on.
When considering the threats posed to me by the state and the occasional "terrorist," I would rather take my chances with the latter. Besides, I suspect that if the state is to continue its entropic collapse, both it and their co-dependent "terrorists" may one day pose threats to none of us.
