Noam Chomsky: Why Americans Are Paranoid About Everything (Including Zombies)

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-why-americans-are-paranoid-about-everything-including-zombies



***SNIP


Question: This might sound kind of random, but I would really like to ask your opinion of why you think there's this preoccupation with the apocolypse and with zombies right now in our culture.

Noam Chomsky: I've never seen a real study, but my guess is that it's a reflection of fear and desperation. It's a very frightened country. The United States is an unusually frightened country. And in such circumstances, people concoct either for escape or maybe out of relief, fears that terrible things happen.

Actually, the fear of the United States is a pretty interesting cultural phenomenon. It actually goes back to the colonies. There are some good studies out there. A very interesting book by a literary critic, Bruce Franklin. It's called War Stars. You might want to take a look at it. It's a study of popular literature, the kind of literature that most people read from the earliest days to the present. When it gets to the present it switches to television, things like that. Just kind of popular culture.

There are a couple of themes that run through it that are pretty striking. For one thing, one major theme in popular literature is that we are about to face destruction from some terrible, awesome enemy. And at the last minute we are saved by a superhero or a super weapon, or in recent years high school kids going to the hills to chase away the Russians, things like that. That's one theme that runs through constantly. And there's a sub-theme. It turns out this enemy, this horrible enemy that's about to destroy us, is somebody we're crushing.

[Katashi_itto]

3. What pray tell are your qualifications?

[hatrack]

6. Yes, because whenever I meet large groups of people, it's always one-on-one

Sure takes time, but it's always interesting.

[Orrex]

9. I look forward to your lengthy tenure on DU.

[jakeXT]

2. I'm surprised he didn't mention the army,cdc,dhs or fema

exercises


No prank: On Halloween, US military forces train for zombie apocalypse

http://m.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2012/1031/No-prank-On-Halloween-US-military-forces-train-for-zombie-apocalypse

[JoePhilly]

4. War of the Worlds. The Omega man. Night of the living Dead. Red Dawn.

Independence day. Mad Max.

Ants.

The Birds.

The Andromeda strain.

The Stand.

There are more than I can think of.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. The government and the media are always fanning the flames of that fear.

Whether it's shoe bombs or bird flu or whatever, there's always some scare being talked about. I think the most fearful people are the ones who are glued to media all the time. If you take a break from all of that, life doesn't seem all that scary. Staying 'informed' will make you a nervous wreck.

[sorefeet]

7. As an American I have had FEAR shoved

down my throat since birth. From Santa Claus to get under your desk the commies are coming to Gods going to burn you in hell to the Muslims are going to behead me right here in Montana. Nothing on the AM radio but right wing fear mongering. If this is the land of the free, why is it a lifetime of living in fear in America.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

13. "Freedom ain't free!"

Said every reactionary I've ever spoken to.

[chrisa]

8. America as a whole seems to have a bunker mentality.

What's weird is, the government is the exact opposite.

We generally need to feel under attack to support wars. The government has no problem creating wars.

This leads to an obvious problem for the government and an even more unethical answer (False threats, like Saddam, the spread of Communism, etc.).

[L0oniX]

10. Fear training starts early on with violent fairy tales........

cradle baby falls, wolf eats grandma, giant smells blood, witch cooks kids, crock eats captain, whale swallows puppet ...and then there are the violent cartoons.

[MisterP]

11. and that's why Europe's an inferno right now that puts 1980 El Salvador to shame! :D

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. "Home of the Brave and Land of the Free" has become laughable.

See NSA and "keeping us safe" for indications of our paranoia and lack of freedom.

[marmar]

14. k/r