According to Channel 4, “This might well turn out to be the most awful terrorist attack of our times”. Seems unlikely, given that not even the most pessimistic projections show more than 1/3 the WTC death toll. Or is this another manifistation of the bizarre paedocentric thing, under which society considers Maxine Carr to be worse than someone who’s *actually murdered* a grown-up?
I suspect you got it in one. As the adult world becomes more infantilised, a contrasting imaginary construction of sacred childhood and a fetishisation of actual children dominates the popular imagination.