Boston bombing reveals a new American maturity toward insecurity

Now, one has been carried out, and Americans are asking themselves if they want another round of disruptions to daily life – bringing airport-level security to major events, for instance – to stamp out every possible threat. The answer, so far, appears to be no.

That is no small shift. In the wake of 9/11, Professor LaFree looked at the American landscape and was filled with anxiety. From coast to coast, the number of potential targets – power plants, nuclear facilities, ports – seemed endless. His conclusion: "There's no way to protect all this stuff."

Most vulnerable of all were "soft targets" – low-security, high-density events like the Boston Marathon where terrorists (defined as those using violence to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal) – could do maximum damage with a minimal chance of being foiled.

Yet now, for the first time in the US, a soft target has been hit, and the public has maintained perspective.

"One of the lasting potential impacts of this is that Americans are being a little more realistic about the limits of what can be accomplished," says Professor Flynn of Northeastern.

"The general conversation is not a public upswell of 'We want more security to make sure this never happens again,' " he adds. "There will be a tension, but there is also a shift. It's 'Do what you can, but we can't respond in a way that's an overreaction.' "

Nancy Agris Savage would agree with that. Despite the bombings at the marathon and the gun battle that played out on the streets of her blue-collar suburb of Watertown, Mass., she doesn't want a radically new "new normal."

The morning following the apprehension of the second suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Ms. Savage, like many in her community, applauded law enforcement's response. She was watching a throng of media doing follow-up coverage on a Watertown street and said: "I'm not sure how much I want to change the way my family lives its life. We'll be more vigilant, more cautious in a way, yes. But I don't want to live more scared or suspicious."

London 'calm,' Boston Strong

To Savage, the people of London might say approvingly, "Keep calm and carry on."

Those words – and the dedication to them – saw London through the Blitz in World War II, through the Irish Republican Army bombings of the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, and more recently through the 7/7 suicide attacks by Muslim extremists in 2005 that killed 52.

Experts see hints of London's mantra in the viral Boston Strong unity response to the marathon bombings.

"Terrorist attacks are horrific, but how you respond is key," says Flynn. "You don't have to turn your lives inside out.... That is the narrative the Brits have had to embrace."

To be sure, London knows it is a terrorist target, and it has changed as a result. In some buildings, people are escorted up to office floors. Along Whitehall, the address for many government ministries, cars cannot stop and tank-resistant balustrades line the road. In some places, photography is prohibited.

But these things are simply seamless parts of London life – as much as "queuing for public transport, poor weather, waiting for lunch," says commentator Tony Travers.

"People define themselves by what they put up with living in a major city like London, which, of course, has layers of history and attacks – like the rings on a tree. People don't forget, but they live with it," he says.

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