09.12.14
Fear is US
Yesterday, the Prez, addressing 9/11:
“As Americans, we don’t give in to fear, ever.”
Look, I like the man. He had to say something that at least sounded like it had some gravity and truth but this is too unfortunate a stretch.
From the wire: “[7 out of 10] of Americans are worried about the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) and support military action against the terror group, according to [a CNN poll].”
After 9/11 Americans were explicitly told to be in fear. A color code system for fear was made just for that. Fear drives over half the economy. Yay, for those of you working in the national security infrastructure! Fear gave us Keith Alexander and his surveillance monster of the National Security Agency. Fear in America has given all of you over a decade of solid job security.
The United States couldn’t exist without fear in the polity: Fear of Ebola, fear of not-white people, fear of people without money and things, fear of foreign enemies in nations, tribes, little gangs, pirates, single individuals with funny names. As this week has more than adequately shown again, fear is the lubricant for the gears of America, its lifeblood, too.
Almost all the subjects I’ve written about in the last twenty years are direct consequences of the American culture and business of fear. You’ve lived it.
On a related note, everything old is new again. What were crap stories a decade ago are back. The people now responsible for bearing the public relations water of fear were in their teens when it all started. Now they’re the fresh paid idiots, lickspittles and mountebanks servanting for it. And in this country, history is a liability, the wisdom to remember the taste of the old stale bread, a character defect. More today, maybe. You’ll recognize it.