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Apr. 2nd, 2006 06:24 pmI've been struck in recent years how much of the country is running on fear.
We fear religious fanatics, from extremist Muslims to overzealous born-again Christians to radical ultraOrthodox Jews. We're scared of the fanatics who aren't our religion because they want to see us converted or dead, and we're scared of the ones who are the same religion for exactly the same reason.
We fear terrorism. Here in the US we fear a repeat of the events of September 11, 2001. We fear somebody might unleash Sarin on a subway, or bring a bomb onto a train. Frankly, we're only getting a taste of what they have had to live with in England, Ireland, Israel, and until recently Spain. Those countries all seem to have some cohesive plan on what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Four and a half years since two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City, one hit the Pentagon in Washington DC, and one hit a field in Pennsylvania, we still don't have a cohesive plan on how to cope with dire emergencies. We used to. I remember plans and precision for most of the Clinton presidency, barring Ruby Ridge. We've slipped backwards, from confidence to uncertainty.
We fear rape. We men might not fear it as much as women. Matter of fact, there's a lot of men who aren't scared of it at all. Maybe they're scared because they think it can't happen to them. They're wrong, of course. Still, it is a concern held far more by women than by men. Lots of women dress more modestly than they would otherwise or restrict where they go. Some think that every man is a potential rapist because he has the equipment. I probably shouldn't mention it, but women can purchase copies of this equipment and many of them do.
We fear disease. We've been told to fear AIDS victims as carriers of a new plague, even though you can't catch it very easily. Bird flu is being brought out as a big problem, because of ways it might mutate in the future as opposed to it causing major damage now. Cellulitis is relatively low-key right now, but it's a big scare for people who have it - it can be fatal. But I don't remember anybody getting cellulitis any time before the last five years or so.
I just asked my parents if they knew of anybody who's had it previously to the year 2000. My father mentioned that the husband of one member of the synagogue had apparently had it, and he believes back in the 1990s. Mom didn't know what I was talking about.
If anybody knows of any cases prior to the 1990s, please let me know. I'm curious.
We fear walking in the wrong neighborhoods. Many of us are told not to walk alone in the 'wrong' part of town. They point to refuse in the streets. There's people lounging around, and there's the common fear that all they want is to cause a little mayhem and trouble. For some people, they fear walking in neighborhoods that look too nice. There's no litter. There's lots of flowers. We don't see anybody who looks remotely threatening. But we might be afraid they'll call the cops on us. They might be afraid of us because they don't recognize us from their neighborhood. And they wouldn't. We're just passing through.
We fear what other people think. Do they like us? Do they dislike us? Why do they dislike us? What will they do to us? Can we survive what they'll do to us? Can we stop them during the act of doing something to us? Can we prevent them?
We fear that other people aren't thinking about us. Why doesn't anybody think about me? Am I boring? Ugly? Always have spinach in my teeth?
I'm not saying that concern for problems should be tossed out the window. If we aren't concerned, we won't do anything about problems coming to get us. But fear isn't concern. Fear prevents action. It prevents constructive thought. It moves people to fight-or-flight - either beat up the bad guys or run away from them. Sometimes a good swift kick in the teeth is an excellent solution; sometimes the best solution is not to be where the problem is. This worked for thousands of years before now, but it doesn't always work. Even when it works, sometimes it doesn't work very well.
I've seen fear thrown around a lot. Fear of razor blades in apples at Halloween, a completely bogus fear that seems to only bring benefit to companies that make little candy bars. Fear of no airbags. Fear that airbags will hurt you more than no airbags. Fear of people who aren't of our religion, because they obviously don't believe in what we believe and don't understand us. Fear of people not in our community, because they aren't Our People and will only cause trouble. Fear of Communists, because they wanted to kill us all. Fear of nuclear war, because it would kill us all. Fear of Terrorists, because they want to kill all of us too. Fear of Them. I've heard a lot more of this as I've gotten older. It's not just my memory playing tricks on me, because I scared easy as a boy and I remember being a scared little kid. No, there are people in high places trying to make us scared and keep us scared.
So my question is, why are they so scared of the rest of us not being scared?
We fear religious fanatics, from extremist Muslims to overzealous born-again Christians to radical ultraOrthodox Jews. We're scared of the fanatics who aren't our religion because they want to see us converted or dead, and we're scared of the ones who are the same religion for exactly the same reason.
We fear terrorism. Here in the US we fear a repeat of the events of September 11, 2001. We fear somebody might unleash Sarin on a subway, or bring a bomb onto a train. Frankly, we're only getting a taste of what they have had to live with in England, Ireland, Israel, and until recently Spain. Those countries all seem to have some cohesive plan on what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Four and a half years since two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City, one hit the Pentagon in Washington DC, and one hit a field in Pennsylvania, we still don't have a cohesive plan on how to cope with dire emergencies. We used to. I remember plans and precision for most of the Clinton presidency, barring Ruby Ridge. We've slipped backwards, from confidence to uncertainty.
We fear rape. We men might not fear it as much as women. Matter of fact, there's a lot of men who aren't scared of it at all. Maybe they're scared because they think it can't happen to them. They're wrong, of course. Still, it is a concern held far more by women than by men. Lots of women dress more modestly than they would otherwise or restrict where they go. Some think that every man is a potential rapist because he has the equipment. I probably shouldn't mention it, but women can purchase copies of this equipment and many of them do.
We fear disease. We've been told to fear AIDS victims as carriers of a new plague, even though you can't catch it very easily. Bird flu is being brought out as a big problem, because of ways it might mutate in the future as opposed to it causing major damage now. Cellulitis is relatively low-key right now, but it's a big scare for people who have it - it can be fatal. But I don't remember anybody getting cellulitis any time before the last five years or so.
I just asked my parents if they knew of anybody who's had it previously to the year 2000. My father mentioned that the husband of one member of the synagogue had apparently had it, and he believes back in the 1990s. Mom didn't know what I was talking about.
If anybody knows of any cases prior to the 1990s, please let me know. I'm curious.
We fear walking in the wrong neighborhoods. Many of us are told not to walk alone in the 'wrong' part of town. They point to refuse in the streets. There's people lounging around, and there's the common fear that all they want is to cause a little mayhem and trouble. For some people, they fear walking in neighborhoods that look too nice. There's no litter. There's lots of flowers. We don't see anybody who looks remotely threatening. But we might be afraid they'll call the cops on us. They might be afraid of us because they don't recognize us from their neighborhood. And they wouldn't. We're just passing through.
We fear what other people think. Do they like us? Do they dislike us? Why do they dislike us? What will they do to us? Can we survive what they'll do to us? Can we stop them during the act of doing something to us? Can we prevent them?
We fear that other people aren't thinking about us. Why doesn't anybody think about me? Am I boring? Ugly? Always have spinach in my teeth?
I'm not saying that concern for problems should be tossed out the window. If we aren't concerned, we won't do anything about problems coming to get us. But fear isn't concern. Fear prevents action. It prevents constructive thought. It moves people to fight-or-flight - either beat up the bad guys or run away from them. Sometimes a good swift kick in the teeth is an excellent solution; sometimes the best solution is not to be where the problem is. This worked for thousands of years before now, but it doesn't always work. Even when it works, sometimes it doesn't work very well.
I've seen fear thrown around a lot. Fear of razor blades in apples at Halloween, a completely bogus fear that seems to only bring benefit to companies that make little candy bars. Fear of no airbags. Fear that airbags will hurt you more than no airbags. Fear of people who aren't of our religion, because they obviously don't believe in what we believe and don't understand us. Fear of people not in our community, because they aren't Our People and will only cause trouble. Fear of Communists, because they wanted to kill us all. Fear of nuclear war, because it would kill us all. Fear of Terrorists, because they want to kill all of us too. Fear of Them. I've heard a lot more of this as I've gotten older. It's not just my memory playing tricks on me, because I scared easy as a boy and I remember being a scared little kid. No, there are people in high places trying to make us scared and keep us scared.
So my question is, why are they so scared of the rest of us not being scared?
