Imagine, for a moment, that al Qaeda was large enough, and well-funded enough, that they had assigned at least one terrorist to each and every American. Imagine that their surveillance and technology were sophisticated enough that the terrorist assigned to you knew every move you made, and could, for all practical purposes, read your mind.
And imagine that that terrorist's primary goal was not to kill you, but instead to destroy you--to so soak your mind and heart in fear and anxiety as to make you doubt everything you had ever believed to be true. His or her delight would not be in seeing your cold, dead corpse, but instead to see you corpse-walk through your life, having given up on the existence of meaning, or the possibility of hope.
