John and I often spoke about the guards, and how the word ‘terrorist’ seemed totally inappropriate. It is a term too frequently applied by people to certain others and serves only to shore up their own prejudices. ‘Some terrorists wear pin­striped suits John,’ I would argue. ‘They hide their terrorism behind institutions of law or social regulation that have more to do with control than liberation. This terror maintains the status quo and power brokerage in the hands of a select few. Democracy has become a myth-word. It has a magical quality. One has only to speak it and people bow down to it and worship it without knowing their own surrender.’

—Brian Keenan, An Evil Cradling