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Power Trip
Deterrence — and the Undeterrable
Technology is democratizing the power of who gets to live and who does not. Are we ready for the consequences?
This is the second installment of “Privatizing the Apocalypse,” a four-part essay being published throughout October. Read Part 1: “The 50/50 Murder” here.
In 2015, a depressive young German named Andreas Lubitz killed himself, five co-workers, and quite a few strangers. He was one of perhaps 1,000 suicidal mass murderers to strike that year worldwide. But an unusual combination of two factors put Lubitz in a ghoulish class of his own.
First, he hatched and executed his plans without anyone’s help — which was not remarkable in itself. But the second factor was scale — in that he really killed a lot of strangers. As in 144 of them. Lubitz’s victims hailed from 18 countries and included infants, retirees, and all ages between. He killed dozens of times more people than most rampage murderers and almost three times as many as 2017’s Las Vegas shooter, who is (for now) history’s most prolific lone suicidal gunman.
Death tolls at Lubitz’s scale almost always involve an organized terror group, criminal gang, or paramilitary organization. For instance, dozens of suicide bombers have taken more than 100 victims with them. But such people are recruited and (sort of) trained, they have logistical support, and they’re abetted by experts like bomb makers.
When suicidal mass murderers go all in, technology is the main force multiplier.
Lubitz’s edge was in his weaponry. Of course, the Vegas shooter had quite the arsenal himself, including 22 semi-automatic rifles and several bump stocks (whose clever design helps mass murderers maximize their body counts). But Lubitz had an Airbus 320. And after locking the other pilot out of the cockpit, he plowed it into a mountainside.
This vividly illustrates a lethal reality: When suicidal mass murderers go all in, technology is the main force multiplier. An 18th-century Andreas Lubitz could have scarcely made a dent in a crowded pub. But armed with a jetliner, the modern one killed on the scale of an ISIS squad…
