The Lone Wolf is out there. As planned, ISIS- and al Qaeda-inspired militants no longer have to travel to join “the fight”. They can terrorize us where we live … where they live.

The attack in Paris is so reprehensible that it numbs our minds. You go Rambo because you don’t like a cartoon? What?

But it should not be mind-numbing. It followed a well-known trajectory: social outcasts were inspired by global jihad; they were flagged by their native governments; they used the internet to gain inspiration and, likely, instruction; and then they unleashed all that fury on innocents. It happened in Australia, on an Army base in Texas, and at a marathon in Boston.

A truth: terrorism only works when the terror it creates makes people change their ways. In the short term, we will organize shows-of-force. Parisians came out en masse. The Washington Post posted a supposedly offensive cartoon. French authorities are searching far and wide for the Terrible Brothers. They will be found.

But the broader point is that Jihadist ideology is broken and, as important, defensive. It cannot stand on merit. Its modern-day organizers know it, so they do an old bait-and-switch: ideology and tactics.

The playbook is so simple: have loners strike symbolic targets; the targeted will respond with overwhelming force; the overwhelming force will be manipulated by the organizers — creating new incentives for the next batch of loners. The cycle continues.

Our hope, decency, and openness will not stop their strategic vision. We need clear-eyed vigilance. These attacks are now happening in our communities — they’re happening here, not there — and the preventive responsibility is shared by all.

Wake up and smell the new normal.

The Wolf will continue to hunt until it — in this case, the incentive to materialize perverse, venomous teaching — is killed.

Originally published at brendanhartdotcom.wordpress.com on January 8, 2015.