Get a Grip America! It’s Dangerous for a People to be Ruled by Fear
I had a conversation with a friend the other day that may offer a glimpse into a piece of why it is that the Bush regime has been able to destroy so much of what’s best about America.
One of us was fussing with an unopened food container with unusually resistant tamper-proof packaging, and that led to our recalling how it is that all the food and drug containers in this country came to encumbered with such strips and tabs, etc., in order to assure us that no one had violated the pristine purity of the contents since the product had left the factory.
It was back in the early 1980s, and someone (never caught) had laced some Tylenol capsules with cyanide. Several people had died, sales of Tylenol had dried up nationwide, and lo and behold—almost overnight—it had been decided that virtually everything that entered the mouths of American must be packaged in a new, tamper-proof way forevermore.
One incident —costing the lives of about one out of every forty million Americans—and our packaging practices were changed forever. More of a hassle, more expensive—but by golly we’d be safer!
Already, more than twenty years ago, we American could be panicked out of all proportion to the threat. The idea that hidden evil-doers might do us harm —albeit taking fewer lives than are lost in any given few hours on our roads—was enough to fill the nation with fear.
That recollection prompted my friend and me to remember also how fearfully Americans responded in the 80s and 90s whenever some isolated instance of terrorism would occur in some other part of the world to which Americans might travel as tourists. We recalled how, in the wake of some terrorist explosion in Europe, thousands and thousands of Americans would call up their travel agents and cancel their vacation travel plans.
And then there’s the way Halloween trick-or-treating got transformed nationwide by a few stories (almost all of them mere urban legends) about poison or razor blades embedded in the treats.
How did we ever get to be a nation of such scaredy cats? What happened to American courage so that a mathematically negligible probability of any single one of us being harmed would send the society as a whole scurrying for safety?
And here we are, still running scared in the wake of 9/11. Yes, 9/11 was terrible. But even looking just at the Americans who were flying on that very day, less than one-tenth of one percent of all the people who flew on airliners on 9/11 were killed.
In World War II, when American marines stormed onto the beaches of Japanese islands, sometimes a third of those marines would become casualties. But they did their duty. The life-expectancy of a marine landing with a flamethrower mounted on his back was measured in terms of seconds! That’s extreme danger.
We’re a nation of 300 million people who lost 3,000 on one terrible day. An important occurrence. But what happened to our sense of proportion?
We are a nation that could fight two mighty and populous fascist powers in World War II, and could confront the possibility of sudden nuclear annihilation during that long twilight struggle” of the Cold War, without overthrowing our constitutional protections nor enthroning an unchecked power in the president nor legitimating torture.
How did we become a nation so ruled by fear?
Yes, the present Bushite leadership, unlike its predecessors, deliberately cultivates fear in the American people. No The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” for this gang. More like The only thing we want from you is fear itself.”
But even before the Bushites started their fear-mongering, Americans were swearing off flying in sufficient numbers to send the airline industry into a swoon. And as the earlier Tylenol episode shows, this American proclivity to fearful overreaction did not begin on 9/11.
It is not good to be the slave of fear. Fear is a solvent of rational thought, of sensible perspective.
So now we have a president recovering some in the opinion polls as he plays his only card, the fear card. As the 2006 election approaches, the strategy of Karl Rove (and his boss, and the entire Republican Party) rests on the premise that the power of fear in America can overcome all evidence and logic. Don’t pay any attention, they’re saying, to those little facts we’re hiding behind the curtain of your fears.
They think that it does not matter if there’s absolutely no evidence that we have to choose between security and the rule of law in the matter of surveillance. The American people can be made afraid enough that they’ll gladly give the president a tyrant’s power to snoop at will without any oversight or check.
They think it does not matter if there’s no evidence that —to be safe—America has to abandon its long-standing commitments to the rules of war and to the rights of due process and to the system of checks and balances on which our whole system of government rests. If Americans can be frightened enough, they will reward those dismantle our heritage while posturing as our strong protectors, and will dismiss as wimps those who speak in the voice of reason instead of fear.
It is up to the American people to prove them wrong. But to do so, we will first have to stop this unseemly quaking in the face of every danger.
Get a grip, America!
October 4th, 2006 at 9:02 am
Andy, Well said! Todd
October 4th, 2006 at 9:40 am
Andy,
For this election, I think the issue isn’t fear completely, but who to fear. I would say that an argument can be made that we should fear this Administration and the Republican congress who have done nothing to provide oversight, which is their function and have actively facilitated this Administration. This Administration is much closer and at least as diabolical and evil as the Islamic Jihadists as they are sometimes referred to and they have been given power that only a dictator needs or wants. Perhaps we should fear our government more as they have all the tools to terrorize the population.
I can oppose these people without being motivated by fear, other than the fear of where our country is going. But others who do not see, those who are none so blind, may need help to see and more motivation to think. I do not wish to appeal to fear, and would not do so myself, as it is not right. But the Administration and the Republicans do it with impunity. That is a powerful message. They have given us the keys, do we dare use fear ourselves? I say no, as that way lies a ruinous future.
October 4th, 2006 at 10:02 am
But there is another emotion powerfully at work too. I’d call it triumphalist blind faith.
As an example, just last night I was talking to someone who is convinced that nobody will ever opress him or subvert or eliminate his civil rights. When I asked him why he believes that, he said that he believes it because he is an American and the government will always protect him and his civil rights.
I explored that a bit, asking questions like how that protection is accomplished and what prevents that very government he has so much faith in from abusing its power, and got the predictable, incantatory answers like “we have a bicameral legislature” and “we have checks and balances”. When I tried to explore that last claim, taking a “well, do we REALLY have checks and balances these days?” approach citing the sorts of events well-known to the “none so blind” community, I was quickly rewarded with a poem I had never heard before and I don’t remember now. The basic thrust was: let nobody, anywhere in the world, defy American power. And then he did a little “Rocky victory dance” with both hands, clenched in fists, in the air. Accompanied by delighted chuckling.
This attitude does not strike me as a fearful one. And I think I see it or its like fairly widely exhibited. I’d call it triumphalist blind faith.
And oh, by the way, the guy I was talking to is a lifelong Democrat who doesn’t like President Bush very much.
On the other hand, one could ask: but is that triumphalist blind faith a mask covering fear?
What do you think about that? I don’t have much confidence in either the “yes” or the “no” answer to my question. Hence this comment.
Another point. While I don’t hold the following view, I do see it as a rhetorical answer to your post. And that is: if we ought not be ruled by fear, we ought not fear arrogation of absolute powers by the chief executive — after all, they will only be used to protect us and our civil rights.
October 4th, 2006 at 10:15 am
Andy,
I’m generalizing here, but only because I think this state of fear has a more profound effect on the right than on the left. It’s no coincidence that the right tends to be more inclined to take religious matters too literally. It also doesn’t help matters that they trust their elected officials too much for their own good, especially when those same politicians go out of their way to increase the level of fear that grips them.
But the left can be fearful too. In my case, I fear what this administration will try next, especially now that Mr. Bush can call anyone an enemy combatant if he so wishes, robbing them of their rights to defend themselves. I also fear the fundamentalist base that the GOP has manipulated to take power.
Take this article about the documentary film “Jesus Camp,” for example.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2837/
That’s more than enough to terrify me. There was also a story from Dallas about a teacher who was suspended after a parent complained that she led her students on a field trip through the art museum where they were exposed to nudity. Apparently, Renaissance art is no longer appropriate for our children, at least not in Texas. To make matters worse, when the local news covered the story, they censored the art as they displayed it on screen.
Also, it doesn’t help matters that both Congress and the mainstream press have failed to be the watch dog. This administration has not taken any responsibility for the disasters we have faced under their rule. Lincoln took responsibility for the Civil War because it happened on his watch. Sure, the events that led up to it were taking place for years just like 9/11, but Lincoln did what any good leader should. Bush has never once apologized to any American, not about 9/11, not about the response to Katrina, not about anything. It doesn’t have to be your fault for you to be able to apologize for it. He is our leader, like it or not, and many in the country look to him to be a leader in our times of crisis. During Katrina when the response time was horrible, he could have come out to say “we’re trying to get to everyone and I’m sorry that we haven’t been able to save more lives and evacuate people faster.â€? 5 years after 9/11, he could finally say “I’m sorry that this event ever took place on our soil,â€? regardless of if it was his fault that it happened. No, Bush says, “he did it” and points at his predecessors like a little kid. With him, it’s his way or the highway. That’s not how you bring the country together. Lincoln’s was a republican when conservative still meant “one who conserves,” unlike Bush who has spent up that huge surplus Clinton left him with and thrown us further into the red than ever before. Lincolns apposing party tried everything to keep him out of office. They smeared him and ridiculed him to no end. Lincoln won and on his cabinet he selected many of those same opponents. When asked why, he said something along the lines of they’re the best at what they do and Americans deserve the best.
Bush had an opportunity after 9/11 to bring this country together. We all can remember how the world mourned and sympathized with us. Since then, we have become more divided than ever before and the entire world outside of the British Prime Minister has questioned our every move and criticized our leadership to no end. I’m not one to listen to what everyone else has to say. I make up my own decisions based on what info I can find researching the stories and taking the time to know what is going on in my country and in the world.
We are living under the rule of a man who things he’s king. Thomas Jefferson said “any man who sacrifices liberty for security deserves neither.” Bush has scared most Americans with an over-hyped terror threat into not only giving up numerous civil liberties under the Patriot Act, he has gone beyond that and done exactly what Nixon had to resign for: illegal spying. He has spied on Americans without court approval even though court approval is a very easy thing to get especially when looking for terrorists. Why has he avoided the courts? Because there are a few things the court wouldn’t approve of, namely spying on your political opponents and spying on activists and protesters. They have already been caught doing the second and I have always believed they have done the first.
Every one of us has a certain civic duty to perform as a citizen of this country. We have a duty to preserve the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all our citizens. We have a duty to monitor our elected officials and to encourage them to make improvements when we find the system is lacking in some way. Normally, the media has this job as well. But today, the media is run by multi-billion dollar corporations. Now there’s someone I’ll never trust. News is only as good as your source. Take for example this week’s Newsweek. They have 4 editions, US, Europe, Asia and S. America. The 3 foreign editions have the same cover story. It’s about Afghanistan and how the Taliban have returned to power and how bad the situation has gotten there. Our cover was completely different. It was about some old lady and I can’t remember the specifics. The point is, why don’t we get to read about the same thing as everyone else?
America is the cream of the crop. We were on top of the world and flying pretty and then we hit rock bottom. It wasn’t 9/11 that changed the world. It was this administration. 9/11 didn’t divide us. Our leaders did. They know that while we are split, we have little power. But when united we are like fingers that make a fist. I’m a peaceful demonstrator and since that is still a right I possess, a right that thousands upon thousands before me died to preserve or died trying to fight for, I owe it to them to fight to preserve these rights for the next generation just as each and every one of us has the duty to preserve this planet and its resources for the generations to come. We have failed them and we have failed each other. Is it any wonder things are looking so grim?
Until we on both sides of the political spectrum learn to live and work together, we won’t see any significant change for the betterment of all. That’s one of the biggest reasons I appreciate and admire what you do here and on your radio shows, Andy. I’ll support your efforts in any way I possibly can.
October 4th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Reader Jane LaFerla wrote me yesterday with this excellent idea:
Thank you for your words in “Get a Grip America,” which I read on Common
Dreams. I propose a new campaign for brave Americans who are tired of the power-grabbing fear mongering. How about bumper stickers and buttons awash in red, white, and blue that simply say :”I Am Not Afraid.”
October 4th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Andy,
I completely agree with your point. It is astonishing to me that any American can feel any fear that another country, or even a large group of heavily armed terrrorists, could do any serious harm to the United States.
I find it interesting that the rightwingers who tout the bravery of our military seem to be afraid that somehow that military will not be able to protect us. It is absurd. I guess I must have seen too many John Wayne movies, but the thought that America is at risk from North Korea, or (pre-invasion) Iraq is ludicrous.
I think what we have here is a deliberate effort to instill fear in order to exert social control.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
October 4th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Fear SELLS, simple as that. Terrible imagery is evoked and then reported to inform the rest of us on how to avoid these problems in the future. This all fits into a nice, sellable package and forum: facilitating information from an expert perspective. I’m afraid it’s all a bit out of control. This compulsion is entrenched within our culture. These ways are not only pervasive in the media. This is also a path to success and prominence, which serves as a mutually beneficial relationship. Expose the case by putting the problem in the public eye, throw some credible sources in the mix and go back to whatever you were doing before. Maybe 5% devote any serious amount of time to see the process beyond what is expected in their job descriptions. To suggest reform in this dynamic is as naïve as thinking a $75,000 donation doesn’t buy a significant amount of votes in Washington D.C. “for the people.â€? I usually try not to be negative and pessimistic. But the reality of the current situation is what it is and I hate this reality.
October 4th, 2006 at 11:24 am
I am not of the opinion that we have nothing to fear, that there is no danger.
I, for one, do have some fear of where the world is heading, including threats to the security of the United States.
I also have a much bigger fear about where the United States itself is heading, with this ruling group taking us toward fascism as fast as they can manage it.
But it is ONE thing to be RULED by fear –to panic, to have fear cloud one’s judgment– and it is ANOTHER thing to take note of the fear and to act prudently and judiciously to address its source.
I do not regard fear as a “negative” emotion, meaning one that one ideally would never experience. If it were not useful, neither we humans nor the rest of the creatures with well-developed nervous systems would experience fear.
But the ideal is to be governed not by fear –nor by other “negative” emotions, like anger– but by good judgment which takes ALL the components in the picture into account, not only that which evokes fear or anger.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Thanks Andy for your mighty words of wisdom and the courage to speak out. Summing up below a few areas of wholeness, fear, and the history of America’s culture. I know again what I say may be odd as I don’t hear much about it, but truly I am thankful you allow us to have a place to share…thanks Andy. I love all even my enemies, and am not trying to offend anyone in what I share.
My understanding is that the ones in the know - know it’s fear running this country. Why?…is a good question. How I see it, is there are two different ways of life. The eastern way is that the 5 senses are an illusion, and the western way think the 5 senses are real. America’s beginning was using the eastern way by the Native Americans until that was destroyed by an empire mentality with orthodox religion being part of the package believing it was the best way. To me religions are great if they don’t use guilt, manipulation or cause harm to any living soul.
I now believe if one believes the 5 external senses are real causes high risk meaning when they are severely weakened we must rely on someone or something outside ourselves to take care of us, which is being co-dependent or left needy and having no control over our own lifestyle without assistance. So with enough scare tactics of insecurity given by the authority (parents, teachers, corporations, nursing homes-care centers, school, gangs-peers, religion, gov’politics-rules-regs-taxes, banks, our boss, military’war’terror,etc.) the sooner fear weakens our structure of our external beliefs. The external (physical) senses can’t be recharged like the internal (spiritual true self) can. This puts us into a survival mode and without the internal true self we sacrifice our soul, morals, freedom and integrity to hang on to our external world that we think is most important to us. Some call this being successful, worldly, materalism, phsyical attachments or addictions that people will give up their life for thinking that is all there is to life. These are the ones that think the external is real and more important then the internal. Thinking everything has to be physically and materistically experienced before it is believed to be factual…meaning is that all there is, and we have used it all up and there is no more. Fear is all we have to show for ourselves…a dead zone with our bodies, culture, and environment diseased. Some go back and forth using alittle of each of the external and internal ways without combining the two into wholeness, but soon get confused as who they really are making untrue choices, or go the easy route and let the authorities think for them…the blind leading the blind.
From my experience I have been there and done that…So now I am doing the flip side of what I was doing years ago following the popular downward cycle believing I could live on just a few pieces of the internal and external ways without connecting the dots, but always left me short-sighted and narrow-minded…and confused I needed all the pieces from my whole self (wholeness - soul growth) to completely understand the confusion and misunderstandings causing the pain and suffering in the world. I think a country is a reflection of the personalities of the ones living there having confusion and chaos or harmony and balance in their lives. My flip-side path of so many years now has convinced me it is honorable and sacred, and will continue on my true heart way journey.
So finding later I needed to expand to tap into my true self, which to me had all the answers of complete wholeness. Praying to be my true self and having the desire and courage to not let the outside world distract me, and also see if others knew what that meant, and they would allow me to be myself even if they did not understand me being out of norm. Only lately have I found others of all races and some religions embracing this true self thinking. Believing if everyone would come from their true selves we would be in harmony one with another. Excepting each others uniqueness, and not support or give quarter to ones who chose to not be true to themselves. causing injury to themselves and others. They can not exist if we don’t give them the fear they want to survive on. Experience shows how the ones with the most money or biggest guns in politics or religion get their way with wars and the take over of a country or a people here (Native Americans) and elsewhere. In those cases there is not a fair chance, and money and power talk and people not in their true selves listen and support and believe their words causing fear and more fear.
I feel we must all deep in our core belief want wholeness, which is complete success making harmony come alive. As babies we are so determined to be a complete success at walking, talking, feeding ourselves making it the perfect experience following correct examples. Being taught true self training gives the glue or cement to build a firm foundation to create integrity. Today I see success meaning just the opposite.
I understand when the external and the internal of ourselves are whole…meaning working together harmoniously, and not leaving our life-force out. In other words we have our external shell (or you call it our face) that can forget our internal life-force (sacred heart way or golden rule) by following their peers pushing their way to the top, believing half-truths, using tunnel vision, staying with the fast-paced current fads or trends, keeping up with the Jonses, joining the biggest crowd thinking quantity must be the correct choice not quality, egotistical behavior, self-righteous attitudes or judgemental beliefs down the path of physical, materialstic and worldly things in life to get illusionary gain with power, control, wealth, status & etc. which is then called success. This drive of energy and motivation is the journey ones take thinking this is what it takes to be a successful person and fit into society with honors and rewards.
What I understand is the fear of failure of not being successful is like the worst sin. Failing this goal does not let us fit into the great American way. School drop-outs, addictions, gangs, higher costs - less jobs, high increase of stress, depression and susicide is a fear of failure of not meeting societies external unwhole standards. Many many graduated students just going into the military to have money or job training, which are excepted by our society to be part of. Many grads living with parents longer since minimum wage can’t even support a low-class lifestyle, which is not totally excepted by our society, but gaining understanding.
I think fear goes hand in hand with this illusionary success. Having fear is like giving up their soul or wholeness to not be our true self ending up being a follower of someone else’s thinking or actions whether factual or not, instead of a leader of truth to create reality. Not being able to stand on our own two feet with true self inner guidance, but being co-dependent on another using external methods only. Living in anger and frustration not being able to have control over our own lives.
To me the inner guidance cares about the welfare of itself for survival and equally to the welfare of others…a win - win situation creating the complete wholeness of true success. We were born with these true self skills, but were trained out of us or taken away by humililation, punishment, spanking the devil out of us-beat your babies, torture and violence creating fear given bad labels and reputations to be ridiculed. No fairness to research for the truth, just being satisfied on the surface to follow and support these false beliefs. Some were able to keep their true ways, but mostly kept hidden having to be someone they were not to save face and their lives to not be an out-cast.
Thinking if everyone one was their true self they would be connected (internally and external together in harmony) to their complete life-force truly caring what is good and wholesome for themselves and everyone and everything in the world. Taking a thought to our heart and then taking action…a whole complete transaction. This wholeness could spread and radiate powerful positive energy just by knowing of our true self and silently sharing that thought into the boundless ethers connecting to each others true selves for the betterment of all. We are all connected energetically to the Source that created us. We are not an empty shell living on limited resources of our external 5 senses. So I understand thought has the most power to make or break us.
Believing deep down we all want the same things to have a deep caring that always exists for one and all, but fear misleads us to worry and stress about not being loved, accepted, wanted, valued or successful. Fear is opposite of love and is not real or true, which causes confusions so people will just follow what is popular, what they hear or told to do, out lack of facts from being rushed to make ends meet, or the easiest way to not care or use old habitual or pragmatic ideas, fear of peer pressure, or just wanting convenience and comfort not wanting to be bothered.
I think USA is overloaded and saturated with fear, and we have lost our true selves by buying and excepting into the external illusion, which is only limitation causing insecurity with the end result of fear. A great price to pay for losing any of our rights or freedoms for happiness for soul growth. Years ago we had more courage with more wholeness of our true selves, but now we have been scared into being afraid to speak up, or be odd or different, have to do what’s popular or politically correct. The truth-bringers are treated as out-casts, so the popular scared crowd aren’t going to listen to them. Fear has many shaking in their boots. Fear is our worst enemy, which destroys wholeness from making a real deal. It is said we are our worst enemies.
To me I feel the life-force of the heart and mind working together in balance to lead and guide each of us, which will automatically bring us back into wholeness. These days it would be nice to humbly put aside external strife of conflict and war for the illusionary world of power, control and greed cancelling out the golden rule of love and compassion for our world family of brothers and sisters. Many are wakening up to find that the path of fear does not work. Truly finding ourselves, knowing why we are here and who we are tells us what we have to do. Wholeness is only a thought away.
October 4th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
I perceive a note of racism in the way the “enemies of freedom,” and the “Islamic fascists” are touted by the neocons (it was amazing how quickly and uniformly the latter term became widespread by right-wing columnists across the country when the word apparently went out from apparently Rove’s desk).
For many years on the evening news we saw images of Middle Eastern people in the streets chanting death to America (from Iran, elsewhere), so the stage was set in the U.S. media for political oportunists in the U.S.to exploit these images.
While technology and communication advances have indeed made attacks on us (within our borders or not) technically MORE FEASIBLE, in my view it is a combination of our foreign policies over the decades that have made them MORE LIKELY.
Many people from every corner of the world envy us both our freedoms and our prosperity (and the two are of course tied), and many of these folks would like to move here for the opportunities the U.S. represents. I take very seriously those stories featuring immigrants who tell horror stories from their countries of origin about political repression and economic stagnation. That is not to say that what they find here is as rosy as they first expect. But who among us would trade places with most of them?
But back to my point, I am amazed at the distinction my neighbors make among non-Americans on the basis of their ethnicity and skin color. The Russian immigrant — bring ‘em on. The fellow from Mexico — build a wall! The family from the Middle East — jail or deport ‘em.
Of course I write from the land of Tancredo….
October 4th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Andy, for the first time I must respectfully disagree.
Americans have much to fear.
Their is a phenomenon in the human psyche known as “ruling class syndromeâ€?. The “haves” in Western society always fear the “have-not’s”. They erect walls, and moat’s, and institute security measures to protect and secure themselves from those that they fear will covet what the have. Especially, if the methods that were employed to get great power and wealth are things that they are not particularly proud of now. For example in America, White people took all this land from the Amerindians by force and enslaved Africans to cultivate the land. There is always the fear that some others, might learn from this behavior and see those methods as a solution to their problems. Only American and British science fiction are obsessed with fictional biengs coming here from other worlds with hostile intent. Why? Hmmm……. In addition, America is now “number one’, and the sole Super Power. When so much of the wealth and power and success of a nation is tied to the military and capitalist industrial strength that we bear upon other nations (ie. Saudi Oil, Congolese cobalt and uranium, Liberian rubber,etc…,) not on the hard work and ingenuity of its people, then much of what we have, can be taken from us by force. If you think of the technological advancements of the Japanese and German societies, these successes can not simply be taken away(they lost the war but did not lose their edge). Every country on Earth would love to replicate and produce the wealth that the Japanese and the Germans have. But they don’t. Why? Well, we now know that those two societies were well in advance of the USA in terms of technology before the war. In fact, it’s notable that since WW2, the USA and Russia(the two big winners in the war) “still” don’t make simple things like cars(combustion vehicles are over 100 years old) as well as the Japanese and the Germans. In fact a sober look at America will reveal that we are not number one at all. Internationally we are ranked - 13th in telecommunications- 19th in health care-28th in education-5th in manufacturing-and so on…….. But we are number one in Greenhouse gas emissions, Incarcerations and murder. So Andy, I believe that Americans have good reason to fear. Her hypocrisy about being a democracy has now been reveled to the entire world(Bush v Gore). That in fact the electoral college system has one purpose, to insure that this country continues as a plutocracy. And that our politicians are corrupt liars that will use our armed forces to maintain hegemony, and our tax dollars to line their pockets. Now, if you don’t fear that, then your insane.
Societies can have an instinctive sense that one day, someone we will have to pay.
October 4th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
I’m of the age when hiding under one’s desk at school was ordered to protect us from the evil-doing Reds who were intent on nuking us to hell. In those times, I remember discussions ridiculing that rule, pointing out the fallacy of the Russians’ desire to commit mass suicide by provoking such a confrontation. Rational thinking Americans were not fearful, but went ahead with their lives, trusting the good people in charge of our government had the assets and intelligence to protect us. This was right after the return of our victorious troops from a war that certainly could have destroyed the world. That was the Greatest Generation passing down it’s courageous legacy to a new generation. What will this new generation be labelled? Certainly NOT the Greatest Generation II. Our corrupt leaders found our Tylenol-fearing hysteria oh so helpful and used it to enhance their plans to dominate and control us. They have transposed fear mongering into an art form. They scream ‘Jump’ and our only response is ‘how high?’ They so embellish the resumes of our enemies that we quake in our collective boots just imagining the all powerful treacherous monsters lurking right outside our doors. Are these evil-doers any more fierce and dangerous than the ultimate chemical weapon loving racist Nazis? The radical kamakazis bent on kiling as many Westerners as possible so they would be rewarded in the afterlife? I think not. How did we come to be such trembling cowards? Where is the American pride and our spirit of defiance and the faith in ourselves to overcome obstacles that dare threaten our way of life? Surely, this is a fearful time in our world. Religious fanatics, bent on domination over other religious fanatics, are armed to the teeth. Our version of the Taliban shrieks about a crusade to remake the mid-east by spreading democracy at gunpoint. Their arrogance and hypocrisy promotes hatred and certainly creates a cimate of fear. But it is our reaction, our timidity, our lack of self confidence and our very American pride that is allowing this newest threat, this current enemy, this constant drumbeat of fear instilled by our fanatic leaders, to defeat us and haveus cower in shame. The Greatest Generation must be weeping. They have produced the Generation of the Fearful Fools!
October 4th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself”
does NOT imply that THERE IS NO THREAT NOR DANGER
It says that you cannot address and counter the danger and threat dominated by apprenhension and fear.
People fear the unknown and their imagination works to magnify the feeling of ‘fear’
The greatest antidote is THE FACTS . . THE TRUTH
As someone has posted above, the great mass of ‘honest’ hard working decent people are concerned mainly with their lives with work family friends clubs etc and if things are going well DO NOT WANT TO BE DISTURBED
The Greatest Fear In America Is that There Is a Reality To Be Faced And It ISA GOING TO REALLY DISTURB.
That is the real unspoken fear and apprehension, that our entire situation is insecure in every respect and ‘we’ may be blissfully living a lie.
If People Can Ever Hear And Face The Facts of What Their Government Is Really Doing (and NOT doing) and why, the fear will turn to anger and for many, to resolve.
In a post above someone was talking to a guy whose total confidence was that the government was going to protect him from all harm.
Most people sense that is not so now but don’t want to admit it.
The stampede is not, though, from the reality, it is the dread of facing the truth. And even the bravado and ‘triumphalism is largely a cover-up.
Truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth
It is often hard to come by but the ‘hiding” from it is the nameless dread.
October 5th, 2006 at 5:49 am
I give tours at a National Historic Site. Following my tour I hear comments. Seems at least 90% in each tour of fifty express feelings of sadness, shame, fear, concern, disgust at current administration and where the country is headed. I only hope their great disatisfaction is expressed in the polls this November. When I was connectd to AOL I read hundreds of comments by people on the upcoming election between Kerry and Bush. Out of those hundreds, perhaps thousands read, maybe five stood out revealing serious thought and concern for the future of this country. They appealed to the readers to consider that four more years of Bush and Regime would result in a dissolving of America as we have known it. I may have stated on an earlier reply, before Bush was even nominated, that I was on phone with stepmother in Florida. An extremely astute, sharp, intelligent woman well read in many areas. We never talked politics, we were never very close, but on that day I called, to make for conversation, I asked her views on the current political scene as the conventions were shaping up. Her reply sent chills along my arms and neck,” I fear this young Bush will be nominated and I fear he will be elected. I fear what will happen to this country, so much so, that I am not sure I wish to be around to see it all happen.” An Australian woman writer, a physicist, Caldicott? I believe, wrote, a paper, BUSH, A THREAT TO MANKIND. Though Chavez may have been inappropriate somewhat in his speech at the UN his courage in denouncing Bush’s polices was to be applauded. It is obvious the masses are in opposition to the practices, decisions, lies, rule-breaking of this administration. Our own ‘trail of tears’ has begun; how are we to stem the flow? All people plus events; even cars, have their cycles. FDR stated once, “There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendevous with destiny.” (August 1936). Does he not speak for us today?
October 5th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
The fear of the US is very much manufactured but is it also a result of the ‘ discovery of the world’ by the people who are … not prepared. The people of the US en masse ( of course not all of them) had been sheltered too long. This sheltering had risen to absurd propotions. It resulted in generation of people totally lacking basic human qualities. One of those qualities is distinction between real thing and hypocricy. Hypocricy effectively became a reality. Every day we hear total nonsense 100% of the time and no one calls is nonsense. Examples: Oprah is just personified nonsense: she gets money for nothing. The statements about ‘ research in drugs’ are 100% nonsense as well and Dr. Gupta’s. I am not even mentioning politics: most of the statements, pundits and practically everything coming from the official channles is nonsense in a sense of common sense, consistency and honesty. The one and only message is: the US person is the best, the greatest, the freest, the happiest etc. The last time I heard such nonsense was in the former Soviet Union.
Fear comes from arrogance. A person who does not consider himself or herself better than other people would not have irrational fears and would not believe the goons in power just because they look like him/her. A person free of arrogance would be reasonably cautious and properly sceptical. But if you are arrogant and helpless like most of our folk, you are afraid of everyone and there is no help. No help. Take your Prozac.
October 6th, 2006 at 2:01 am
to Sachin Mahajan– The reason you still have the right to protest is that it is completely ineffective. What positive effect has protesting produced lately? Our government completely ignores the opinions expressed by protestors. That’s why you still have the right to do it.
October 6th, 2006 at 9:23 am
Thank you, Andy, for another timely and beautifully stated, thoughtful and thought-provoking commentary. After reading it, I listed all that of which I fear. It was an interesting exercise, for I discovered that most all of my fears are 1) foundless and can be difused by learning more–e.g. bugs, 2) inevitable and there’s nothing I can do about them–e.g. death, 3) real concerns about which I can take action by speaking out, writing, e-mailing, working and dialogueing with others to effect changes–e.g. the current political and cultural climate in this country. I’ve noticed a shift from fear to sadness to anger on many a personal level. Now to put this energy to work! Again, thank you.
October 6th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Eugene Burdick, 1940’s-50’s author of “The Ugly American” wrote another analysis of totalitarianism–”The Ninth Wave”. Besides some really stoked metaphysics of surfing, this slim little paperback (now only available in used book stores or out-of-print on Amazon , ExLibris, etc.) contains a truly sterling metaphor of the dictator: The theory of the two gates. The dictator opens the fear gate and lets fear run rampant in the people. When the people are stressed to the breaking point, the dictator closes fear and opens the hate gate–gives the people an outlet for their fear–a scapegoat group. In the 30’s Stalin gave the Russians the kulaks. In the 40’s Hitler gave the Germans the Jews and the Japanese were given the Chinese. 2007? Gays? Immigrants? Democrats? Try to find this REALLY important and seminal little book. Easy application to today.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Garen Fountain
And how is it working for you, it has been some time between now and this post, i was just wondering if you are happy with it.