Brunching
"This one is for learning the lessons of Afghanistan"_____________
Having brunch with an out-of town friend this morning (that's what Kerry-lovin' liberals do, right--brunch?), I heard a very simple truism from my communicant. It grew out of a Sociology 101 discussion on the authoritarian mindset, whose adherents yearn for direction and will unblinkingly follow the father-leader into the mouth of hell. To wit,
"Why is it people are so afraid today? I grew up with the Soviet menace around every corner, and thousands of actual nuclear warheads aimed right for the U.S., yet now I'm expected to give up my rights to be protected from men like Osama bin Laden, who live in caves who do not have nuclear capacities?"
It is a simple and valid question. How have we come this far (backward), and forgotten that we came through an actual threat intact, and forgotten the ways in which we achieved that detente?
Input is welcomed.
--Lisa
Labels: fear in america, soviet menace
posted by rangeragainstwar at 12:23 PM
14 Comments:
The goal is to keep the people in this fear mode while they steal everything that isn't bolted down. Everyone is to busy giving away their rights so we can catch the bad guys, only a few have noticed that their in the WH. On next weeks vacation my reading will Naomi Klein Shock Doctrine it should be fun to have all the little things they done tied together.
jo6pac
This saying was paraphrased in Longfellow's Hiawatha and many other places. I have seen it attributed to many different native americans. Because of the citation by Longfellow I am certain that it predates the Apache Nana that I was taught said this. Therefore, without an attribution beyond oral tradition, including an admission that this comes from my own memory I will give you this.
When it comes your time to die
Be not like those whose hearts are so filled
With the fear of death that they weep and beg
For a few seasons more to live their life
Over again in a different way.
At your time, stand up tall,
Look your death in the eyes
Like a friend that has come to greet you
Sing your Death Song proudly
For you are a Warrior,
Going home.
"It's time to wake up America
Our economy's based on war
They keep us in constant fear
And the rich get more and more
We once stood high around the world
But all thats gone flat
Hey, it's my America too you know
And I don't like where it's at!"
America in Denial
jo6pac,
May I also recommend, Conservatives Without a Conscience, by John Dean. I do not believe it got the attention it merited.
MB,
I thank you for those sentiments.
I often wonder why avowed Christians, who are taught they will enter some idyllic afterlife, are often the most afraid of death. They are unsure and worried; many seem haunted by the "end" of their time.
They make much of their "legacy" --the concept of their offspring hurtling their essence into the future. Yet this is not guaranteed, and one must die their own death, knowing full well it is the end, with a possible, imagined new beginning.
Even their savior had his doubts ("Why hast thou forsaken me?")
Perhaps folks would have to live more presently and authentically if they knew this here was the whole enchilada.
Lisa,
The whole Christian fear of death has always baffled me. I make no claims of knowledge to what if anything lies beyond death---my personal preference is NOTHING, but I can't quite convince myself that is what it is. But in either case, fear isn't part of the equation. If we could convince mankind that this ball of blue wax is "it" to make into hell or paradise instead of waiting for divine intervention...Oh wait, that is my evil, nasty hell-bound pagan reality gap talking again, isn't it?
Has anybody ever seen any objective evidence -- polling data, etc. -- that people are living in "fear" post - 9/11?
Anecdotal evidence seems to be not -- most of the people who I've talked about 9/11 with (who are admittedly: 1) Boomers and 2) Vets either of the Great SE Asian Adventure or were in during that extravaganza) are not so much fearful as, to this day, in a constant state of low - level rage.
Other anectodal evidence -- the areas which should have the most to fear, the metropolitan areas of the two coasts: NYC, LA, Bay Area -- consistently vote overwhelmingly against the pack of thugs now running the country. You'd think if they were fearful they would have voted for Dear Leader and his enablers.
The flip side of that coin is that the red areas seem to have the least to fear -- don't think anyone's too worried about AQ flying a 747 into a corn silo in the middle of Nebraska.
The fear that is out there is domestic and economic, and is something this pack has actively aided and abetted: no healthcare, the attack on Social Security: the movement toward drowning the government in the bathtub on the way to the You're On Your Own economy, with everybody too afraid to give up a job to be anything other than wage slaves.
If that's been Karl's and Grover's plan all along -- harness fear as another weapon in the war on government (except of course the military - industrial complex) they seem to be suceeding.
labrys,
It is a nice thought that we persist, but surely, not in our present form. Maybe something like in the old Star Trek episode, where people were balls of energy. But as for the "glorified bodies" my Baptists friend tells me await. . .nah. You slim down here, or not. Like Elvis sang, it's now or never.
And as William Blake wrote, we can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven. We create our misery or remove it. Men are just about as happy as they make their minds up to be (Lincoln.)
So many wallow in guilt, remorse and regret. Heaping it on, hoping for expurgation and expiation at some later date. Paying for indulgences, confessing. . . Seems silly to me. I think the message is, be free and love w/o fear and reserve.
Not too many free souls out there.
fbg46,
Well, yes, we should realistically fear the destruction of our economy and government infrastructure. But somebody voted the W in, and it wasn't me or you. Reality does not always coincide with perception.
A thinking person figures out that even if all Muslims wanted to kill us, they cannot obtain nor project the capacity to do so. Hence, we do not quake in fear. Rather, as you say, we have a righteous anger directed at our corrupt government.
Your friends are thinkers; people in SF and NYC ain't afraid of nothin' -- they walk Central Park and the Tenderloin at dark.
It's the good folks who have not much to fear whose imaginations are stoked by terrible stories of the dark berobed others, lurking behind every grain silo if you gave 'em half a chance.
What Rove so successfully did in implanting the fear was capitalize upon everyone's sense of importance, especially those who feel slightly more superior, and can be made to feel someone is envious of them. These people are not operating on the rational level. They hate what they do not understand (fear).
Lisa..
Definitely not our current form. And by Gods, if I get a choice (cheesy grin here!) I stealing Angelina Jolie's form, ok!? I don't know what follows "on" as they say....just too many "pings" out on that Walk to think it is the "nothing" I hope for, darn it all. But hey, if it is pink clouds and bad harp music...I will be marching south singing heavy metal lyrics as I go!
labrys,
If it's minstrel boy who's playing for us, it will be fabulous harp music. I fancy if I'm a good enough groupie, he'll feed me some lush truffles, whilst I recline on a cloud listening.
All of a sudden, "Highway to Hell" pops into my mind, unbidden. Surely I cannot hang that on MB!!
Warning for hardcore military guys: metaphysics up ahead, loose as a canon:
As for the "pings" you speak of, I too have had these "intrusions" into this mundane life, and I wonder, what is that? I do not think it necessarily equates with an afterlife for us. We mustn't be so ethnocentric, or hominid-centric. These may be energies other than a returning dearly departed aunt who is looking out for our well being.
I am not saying it is malevolent, just perhaps not a recycled human. Oh, we are walking on the wild side now, labrys. Disclaimer: Ranger does not approve of this sort of speculation. I'd be lauhed off the page at intel-dump. . .but we're not at intel-dump.
LOL...intel dump? How did he know the nickname some of us very naughty analysts had for Field Station Berlin? But we needn't clutter things here with metaphysics or meta-nonsense. That is what my message boards are for...wild speculation and middle aged angst.
Besides, if I start positing ideas and comparing civilizations' interps of these "pings"....we will run out of room. I wish there were no such pings to make all the intel in the world sound like semantic garble...I do SO love simplicity.
Simplicity was 24 wires, 16 holes, a gray box and a day book.
That used to garble them!
Hmmm, Trip-Wire, that makes me wonder. Maybe that is what GOD uses...that gray box toy? And after He garbles us, lol, he calls down and rolls laughing on heaven' floor?
Obviously, I am coffee deprived today, thats all I've got. Or maybe we have the wrong antenna for reception?
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