But right now people are pretty much ready to throw their basic rights and freedom away in the hope it will make the buzz go away.
The worst part is that attacks like the Paris attacks are pretty much impossible to prevent unless we transform our democracy into a totalitarian state...
terrorism is, above all, politically motivated theatrical act that should manipulate audience into something (fear and thus irrational behavior, election choices etc). plus some stray dogs that are out of any reasonable control.
we humans are vastly irrational, and just because mankind landed on the moon doesn't mean emotions don't hold more power than reason in most of us. that's why so many people are afraid of flying, are superstitious, believe in horoscopes and so on. you know, general folks out there who have same voting power as you or me or anybody else
The irony is that in totalitarian states terrorism increases, not decreases. Because then even more people have a reason to hate their own totalitarian leaders.
Which is also why the western intelligence agencies were struggling to infiltrate the soviet union.
I am talking about totalitarian regimes (Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, North Korea, Maoist China, etc). Simple dictatorships are different. They exert less control over their population.