I’m a little slow on the uptake, and, as such, I must apologize to fellow DUers who have been discussing the “cult of fear” for years now and how it plays right into the hands of those in power. I didn’t understand—I mean really understand—the crux of many discussions that centered on how this fear is used to manipulate public opinion and, consequently, fiscal policy. This all became recently clear to me as I watched a nifty little documentary called “The Atomic Café.”
It used to be that we feared communism. This became the tool for control of the masses and opinion after WWII. Nothing was done in this country without considering the fear of the communists. Every decision regarding foreign policy, defense spending, education, entertainment, suburban life, everything…every thought and movement was influenced by “the threat of communism.”. I’m old enough to remember “duck and cover” drills from school, and the once-each-month air-raid siren test. Such occurances were a constant reminder that the commies wanted to attack us and take away our lifestyle; our lifestyle of “freedom and choice.” We acknowledged this and accepted it, as we did the decisions of those in power. We allowed our tax dollars to be used to “stop communism.” And big dough was indeed spent on protecting us from this threat as foretold by President Eisenhower. But in 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and we were no longer “threatened” by the Pinkos in South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (although apparently Cuba is still a hotbed of commie activity hellbent on taking us down)..
So, we the world were at peace for the first time since, well, 1941(?) Anyway, the threat of communism had ended due to the wisdom and vision of Mikhail Gorbachev (sorry, Ronald Reagan had very little to do with it. He was just following the script, so to speak) Then, almost as if on cue, terrorism reared its ugly head….hmmmm….and the world was not a safe place again. On February 26, 1993, just four short years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States was attacked by “terrorists.” The World Trade Center was the target in a plot that was begun in 1991, just two years after the fall of the Iron Curtin. But the terrorists of that attack were caught, tried, and imprisoned, and we were a “peaceful nation” again, until…the Bushistas! Is it just a coinincidence that
plans for the first WTC bombing began just two years after the fall of communism and that BOTH events occurred during the administration of Bush I? Well, along came 9/11 and the rest is history. Here we are, once again living in fear of an unseen force hellbent on destroying us. Our politics, society, and culture are fast becoming more centered on “those terrorists” and we are spending, once again, huge amounts of money to make sure “those terrorists” are defeated. It appears the “better to fight them over there than fight them over here” slogan has taken the place of the Domino Theory (for you DUers too young to remember, this was at one time the reason of US involvement in Southeast Asia—that we stop communism “over there” before enough countries fall to Marxists/Maoists that we would be fighting them “over here” at our borders). Once again, we have villains: Marx, Lenin, Mao, Ho Chin Ming have been replaced by Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein (I know, I know, but he had to be included considering the “big lie”), and various members of al Qaeda. Once again, the media is “catapulting” this “propaganda” with biased, slanted reporting and outright lies.
It's the same old "same old," and once again, multi-national corporations and a few well-connected individuals will make out like bandits.
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