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The Secrets
Feb. 17th, 2003 07:25 am
Hey there, all...
This weekend was pretty good. Lots of company;![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rozberk and thevixen came down, along with flying_fox_sean. If I can find a ride up there, I'll definitely return the favor for Flying Fox's shindig in Tulsa.
I've been thinking an awful lot on fear lately. In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore presented the idea that the reason Americans were so violent wasn't because of the violent media, or music, or video games, or anything like that, but because of the fear that this country has of each other and other countries in the world. I'm not quite sure how the vibe is in other countries, but he definitely has a good point. We're so very mistrustful of each other; we don't even go out trick-or-treating any more because we're afraid our own neighbors might slip razor blades into apples or something like that (in the movie, Moore provided the statistic that only two children have been documented to die from Halloween candy, and both of those were familial homicides). I mean, shouldn't we *know* if our neighbors are decent people are not? They live right next door.
Where does all this fear come from? How have we as a country grown so mistrustful of everything? A good part of it is the media, which constantly peddles tragedy as their top stories, and then makes it seem like every school shooting, every postal job, every freak accident is this harbinger of an epidemic of things. I mean, really, if a child gets mauled by an escalator, does that mean we all have to be extraordinarily paranoid of all escalators from now on? ("We use them every day, but are they really a stairway...to disaster?")
"Keep them afraid. Keep them buying." People make a lot of money on fear. We're afraid of terrorist attacks, so we're buying batteries, bottled water, chemical protective gear, electric generators, guns, guns, guns, any and all survival gear we think might give us a chance over our neighbors (who might be terrorists themselves!). We're afraid that our economy is going to collapse, so we buy cars we can't afford, clothes we don't need, stocks we have no idea what to do with...we're afraid of being stinky and unpopular, so we buy facial creams and exercise equipment that we never use...we're afraid of being old, so we buy hair transplants and age-defying ointments. They never work, so we get more desperate. We haven't actually lost control of anything, but the perception that's being constantly presented is that our children and our technology, our economy and our relationships with other people, they're all spiralling to hell and there's nothing we can do about it but protect ourselves.
Common decency is rapidly becoming antiquated because we're afraid to be nice to other people, because nice people are stabbed in the back. People don't trust other people who are nice because there *must* be some ulterior motive. Everyone has an agenda, and it's usually all so selfish. If we can't even trust our own children, if we're at war with neighbors we should know better than Islamic folks halfway around the world, how in the world will the US ever trust another foreign country?
Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have gained so much ground in their efforts by peddling fear. All of the terror alerts have been woefully vague and (apparently) woefully inaccurate, but they've done well to keep us all afraid when we go out in public. Something *might* happen, so don't forget to buy your gas masks when you go to the big game!
The cycle has to stop somewhere. All it takes is for people to trust other people, to be less afraid. Actually get to know your neighbor, and your neighborhood. That lady who looks like she's on meth might just be worn out from working two jobs just to pay her rent. Her children might be running amok because there's no one to look out for them. Stop assuming worst-case scenario and stop seeing people as sinister or insane. Most of the time, they're just people.
I have a cold. I really hate having a cold, especially since this one looks to be a bit worse than most. 2 just gave me a little something called Zycam which should do the trick, so let's hope for the best, eh? Lots to do at work today.
This weekend was pretty good. Lots of company;
rozberk and thevixen came down, along with flying_fox_sean. If I can find a ride up there, I'll definitely return the favor for Flying Fox's shindig in Tulsa. I've been thinking an awful lot on fear lately. In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore presented the idea that the reason Americans were so violent wasn't because of the violent media, or music, or video games, or anything like that, but because of the fear that this country has of each other and other countries in the world. I'm not quite sure how the vibe is in other countries, but he definitely has a good point. We're so very mistrustful of each other; we don't even go out trick-or-treating any more because we're afraid our own neighbors might slip razor blades into apples or something like that (in the movie, Moore provided the statistic that only two children have been documented to die from Halloween candy, and both of those were familial homicides). I mean, shouldn't we *know* if our neighbors are decent people are not? They live right next door.
Where does all this fear come from? How have we as a country grown so mistrustful of everything? A good part of it is the media, which constantly peddles tragedy as their top stories, and then makes it seem like every school shooting, every postal job, every freak accident is this harbinger of an epidemic of things. I mean, really, if a child gets mauled by an escalator, does that mean we all have to be extraordinarily paranoid of all escalators from now on? ("We use them every day, but are they really a stairway...to disaster?")
"Keep them afraid. Keep them buying." People make a lot of money on fear. We're afraid of terrorist attacks, so we're buying batteries, bottled water, chemical protective gear, electric generators, guns, guns, guns, any and all survival gear we think might give us a chance over our neighbors (who might be terrorists themselves!). We're afraid that our economy is going to collapse, so we buy cars we can't afford, clothes we don't need, stocks we have no idea what to do with...we're afraid of being stinky and unpopular, so we buy facial creams and exercise equipment that we never use...we're afraid of being old, so we buy hair transplants and age-defying ointments. They never work, so we get more desperate. We haven't actually lost control of anything, but the perception that's being constantly presented is that our children and our technology, our economy and our relationships with other people, they're all spiralling to hell and there's nothing we can do about it but protect ourselves.
Common decency is rapidly becoming antiquated because we're afraid to be nice to other people, because nice people are stabbed in the back. People don't trust other people who are nice because there *must* be some ulterior motive. Everyone has an agenda, and it's usually all so selfish. If we can't even trust our own children, if we're at war with neighbors we should know better than Islamic folks halfway around the world, how in the world will the US ever trust another foreign country?
Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have gained so much ground in their efforts by peddling fear. All of the terror alerts have been woefully vague and (apparently) woefully inaccurate, but they've done well to keep us all afraid when we go out in public. Something *might* happen, so don't forget to buy your gas masks when you go to the big game!
The cycle has to stop somewhere. All it takes is for people to trust other people, to be less afraid. Actually get to know your neighbor, and your neighborhood. That lady who looks like she's on meth might just be worn out from working two jobs just to pay her rent. Her children might be running amok because there's no one to look out for them. Stop assuming worst-case scenario and stop seeing people as sinister or insane. Most of the time, they're just people.
I have a cold. I really hate having a cold, especially since this one looks to be a bit worse than most. 2 just gave me a little something called Zycam which should do the trick, so let's hope for the best, eh? Lots to do at work today.
