We are a country held hostage by fear

[Protagoras]

Helps to remember that there are some good spiritual people out there who are on our side...

by Joan Chittister OSB

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It's difficult to go through an airport these days -- and I go through
lots of them here and around the world -- without doing some serious
soul-searching about it.

The famous question repeats itself over and over again in the tiniest of
ways in me: Are we better off today than we were five years ago?

In Asia, for instance, I do not need to take off jackets and jewelry and
buckles and cell phones as I go, not even my shoes.

In Europe there are no body scans and puffers as there are in
Albuquerque.

In Africa and South America, they do not submit my computer to body
scans of its own.

In those places, I forget for a moment that in the United States I live
behind a wall that the world dare not penetrate. I forget for a while
that we are a city under siege. I forget that I am going in and out of
an armed camp called "the land of the free, the home of the brave."

What I cannot forget when I read the morning papers is that once upon a
time, in the not too long ago, we didn't live this way. What happened?

If the question were asked about baseball instead of politics, somebody
would be keeping a box score, a chart of gains and losses. In fact,
managers and players would be hired and fired on the basis of it.
But not in politics. Not us. Instead, we re-elect politicians to "stay
the course."
So what is "the course"?

There's nothing esoteric here. Read the front page of any newspaper and
the direction is clear.

Instead of working with moderate governments and the world community,
instead of courting public opinion and international support, instead of
trying to understand the U.S. image around the world and working to
change it, instead of asking why gleeful children danced in the streets
when the Twin Towers fell, instead of doing something positive to
correct it, we fed right into it.

We did the frontier thing and began to kill people ourselves. As in
"That'll show ' em who's boss." Except that it hasn't.

...

http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/fwis/fw070606.htm

Well worth reading the whole thing and most of her other essays as well.

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. It's one of the major tenants of the Neocons.

people have too much freedom and can only be prodded to do what the neocons want by being kept in a state of fear.

[Protagoras]

2. what amazes me is how many people don't really understand this

These are people who really do...honestly and openly believe that EMPIRE is good...and moreover that THEY should control that Empire. And that to gain their Empire they are perfectly justified in doing whatever it takes.

They've discovered (or just read enough history) to realize that people who are afraid can't give away their freedoms fast enough.

But there is a difference between feeling fear...and being cowards.