Terrorism

" As its name implies, it is the promotion of a state of blind unreasoning fear. The basis of all civilization is the codification of law; the community's moral sense finds expression in laws, and though their observance is based in the last resort on fear of the consequences of contravening them, such fear, being dependent on a known contingency, is unoffensive, mild with no nightmarish quality in it.
Terrorism, the negation of law, aims at creating an enduring state of fear, not of particular consequences of particular acts, but nameless, like a child's fear in the dark. Only by means of terrorism was it possible for Nazi rule to be established. Law implies the application of reason to human affairs, to judicial settlement of disputes, the possibility of different point of view whose validity must be carefully weighed. Such conceptions are abhorrent to those whose leader has laid down the principle that truth must not be investigated objectively, but only its favourable aspects presented. Law had to be destroyed and replaced by terrorism."

"By such means it is possible for an unscrupulous and ruthless minority to impose its dictatorship on the majority; to make them obedient, apparently amenable to any policy, however violent and inconsistent, and to inculcate them with any doctrine, however unreasonable and absurd. Unity of purpose is achieved, but by imposition from without, not by conviction from within. It is the unity of the chain-gang. In the process of achieving this chain-gang unity, whatever differentiates a civilised community from its jungle origins is lost. There can be no trust between man and man when all are in duty bound to act as informers; there can be no intellectual or moral integrity when opinions are dictated and any deviation from them punished; there can be no learning or art, no pursuit of truth at all, when the free exercise of curiosity and speculation is made a crime. Human life, so confined, is something very paltry, lacking in dignity, insignificant. Whatever is fine and permanent in human achievement has been realised through individuals courageously facing the circumstances of their being; and a society is civilised to the extent to which it makes this possible. Terrorism, which aims at putting out the spiritual light, is the antithesis of civilisation."

From 'Government by Terror' by Malcolm Muggeridge from published by Darton Longman & Todd  

A recent Mother Jones article describes the growth of informants for the FBI over the past 50 years

"This story is adapted from , Trevor Aaronson's new book documenting how the Federal Bureau of Investigation has built a vast network of informants to infiltrate Muslim communities and, in some cases, cultivate phony terrorist plots. The book grew from Aaronson's award-winning Mother Jones cover story "The Informants" and his research in the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkeley."