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Fear Itself
Sep. 29th, 2014 09:41 amA famous President once said "all we have to fear is fear itself." Given some current events, I expect he's rolling over in his grave.
Unless you've been under a rock, you've heard of 5-time looser Alton Nolen and his beheading rampage. Unless you've been under a bigger rock, you've heard that were bombing ISIS (aka ISIL) in Iraq and Syria.
Now, I have no doubt that ISIS, or some of the people in it, want to destroy America. I have some doubt as to exactly what Nolen wanted (he had more than a few screws loose) but let's give him the benefit of the doubt and decide that he wanted to destroy America. Fine. There are many a five-year-old who wants to run off and join the circus. But we don't worry much about that, because said five-year-olds lack the resources to do so.
Thus unto ISIS and the late* Mr. Nolen. They are simply unable to cause more than (relative to a nation of 300 million) minor problems. Yet we (or at least some portion of we) treat them with the same concern we handled the Soviet Union, a nation that cold literally bomb us into a (radioactive) Stone Age. So why do we do this?
Although I do think some people are exploiting this fear to sell stuff, by and large this fear is sincerely held. I think there are several reasons for the fear. First, there's a simple lack of perspective. People don't know or understand what "the terrorists" are or aren't capable of. Second, and I think more importantly, within living memory the US has always had a significant enemy - first Germany and Japan, then the USSR. It's a simple paradigm, and in a way comforting, so we cling to it. But then so is Linus's security blanket.
* I am advised in comments that Nolen is still among the living. Your Correspondent regrets the mistake, although he suspects that Nolen will not survive the Oklahoma legal system.
Unless you've been under a rock, you've heard of 5-time looser Alton Nolen and his beheading rampage. Unless you've been under a bigger rock, you've heard that were bombing ISIS (aka ISIL) in Iraq and Syria.
Now, I have no doubt that ISIS, or some of the people in it, want to destroy America. I have some doubt as to exactly what Nolen wanted (he had more than a few screws loose) but let's give him the benefit of the doubt and decide that he wanted to destroy America. Fine. There are many a five-year-old who wants to run off and join the circus. But we don't worry much about that, because said five-year-olds lack the resources to do so.
Thus unto ISIS and the late* Mr. Nolen. They are simply unable to cause more than (relative to a nation of 300 million) minor problems. Yet we (or at least some portion of we) treat them with the same concern we handled the Soviet Union, a nation that cold literally bomb us into a (radioactive) Stone Age. So why do we do this?
Although I do think some people are exploiting this fear to sell stuff, by and large this fear is sincerely held. I think there are several reasons for the fear. First, there's a simple lack of perspective. People don't know or understand what "the terrorists" are or aren't capable of. Second, and I think more importantly, within living memory the US has always had a significant enemy - first Germany and Japan, then the USSR. It's a simple paradigm, and in a way comforting, so we cling to it. But then so is Linus's security blanket.
* I am advised in comments that Nolen is still among the living. Your Correspondent regrets the mistake, although he suspects that Nolen will not survive the Oklahoma legal system.
