Could that person sitting next to you in your writing group or in the subway actually be (gasp!) a Communist?
Oh, less likely these days, right?
But maybe he or she is a terrorist!
Fortunately, back in 1955 the US First Army Headquarters created a manual called "How to Spot a Communist."
I wonder whether it could still be of use, if we just substitute the term terrorist? Given the recent revelation of the key words in your emails that make the NSA suspicious (team, pork, etc.), I may be on to something here.
The report says that while they try not to give themselves away, such people can be spotted. So here we go, with terrrorist replacing Communist:
"While a preference for long sentences is common to most terrorist writing, a distinct vocabulary provides the more easily recognized feature of the “Terrorist Language.”
Even a superficial reading of an article written by a terrorist or a conversation with one will probably reveal the use of some of the following expressions: integrative thinking, vanguard, comrade, hootenanny, chauvinism, book-burning, syncretistic faith, bourgeois-nationalism, jingoism, colonialism, hooliganism, ruling class, progressive, demagogy, dialectical, witch-hunt, reactionary, exploitation, oppressive, materialist.
This list, selected at random, could be extended almost indefinitely. While all of the above expressions are part of the English language, their use by terrorists is infinitely more frequent than by the general public…"
Other tipoffs that you may be dealing with a terrorist are the use of terms including “violation of civil rights,” “racial or religious discrimination” or “peace.”
The report does warn, "The principle [they meant principal] difficulty involved is the distinction between the person who merely dissents in the good old American tradition and the one who condemns for the purpose of abolishing that tradition." You know, abolishing traditions like imprisonment without trial or representation, or needing a warrant for wiretaps. Oh, wait...
I will write more about this soon but must close for now or I will be late for the hootenanny. Ooops...
