A new documentary on BBC2 by Adam Curtis, The Power of Nightmares, will investigate the role of fear as a political tool and the idea that the terrorist threat is not what we think it is. URL for the documentary is
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/listings/programme.shtml?service_id=4224&filename=20041027/20041027_2100_4224_43282_60Here's a quote from a Canadian newspaper (it was emailed to me, still trying to ID the source --help??) that sums up the use of fear as a political tool...
"For government, fear is a powerful tool... It is impossible to argue rationally against fear or to prove categorically that a danger does not exist. But is the fear driven by genuine danger? Or is it just a useful device for politicians who want to assert their authority. A provocative new British documentary series starting this week argues that it is the latter. 'The Power of Nightmares', directed by the award-winning documentary maker Adam Curtis, makes the case that in a post-ideological age, politicians increasingly use fear, rather than vision, to bolster their positions. They create fantastical dangers against which they then offer to protect their increasingly terrified voters. Expert witnesses, who are keen to increase their own sense of importance, are complicit in the conspiracy. The media, always on the look-out for a story, have no motive to expose the fiction. ...the three-part series - to be screened on BBC2 - focuses on international terrorism, a threat that, since the attack on the World Trade Center, few have dared to question."
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