The Fear Show

When the final history is written, the 2000s will be known as the Decade of Fear.

Fear is what drives and motivates us. Unreasoning, often nameless fear. Fear has manipulated us ever since 9-11. It has controlled our lives. 

This is natural, in part, because Fear has been a basic element in the Nixon Thesis of Conflict ever since it first came to power, nearly 40 years ago. It has been built into our psyche so completely that we're not even aware of it. Many of us even deny it. Yet every time someone wants the knees to jerk there it is, a button waiting to be pressed.

The trouble with Fear is that it's like cocaine. It loses its potency over time. You need more-and-more stimulation to get the high. In terms of Fear, then, 9-11 was like Woodstock and Altamont and the Summer of Love all rolled into one great big Fear ball. Its horrors were real for New York, and for Washington, but in reality, for the vast majority of us, it was only Fear itself. It was a TV show.

In the end twe went into Iraq to keep up the Fear. A quick win in Afghanistan, the capture of Osama Bin Laden, would have been followed by a victory rally, by de-escalation, by the triumph over Fear. And since our leaders had nothing to offer other than Fear itself, they had to keep it rising, or we would find out.

That's really what the Project for a New American Century   was all about.  Fear. It was crafted in the 1990s, after our Fears had been eliminated by the Collapse of Communism, as a way to get Fear going again.

With Fear out of power, the 1990s were the Age of Seinfeld, a decade of wry amusement, of triviality, and of rising prosperity, the High Time of the Yuppie Ethos, the baby boomers' Eisenhower Era. Fear had to make do with Hillary Clinton caricatures, with Whitewater, with blow jobs from interns, with vague nameless dreads. There was significant shrinkage.

The Seinfeld Decade   ended in cynicism. That was its natural limit. When you don't really believe anything, you'll believe anything. In a time of relative calm, life attains a certain meaninglessness. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there's only so much lotus we can stand. We were ready for something new.

We were ready for Fear.

But Fear, as I've said, also has its limits. You can only live in Fear for so long. There has to be a pay-off. If they don't come for you, if they cry wolf too often, if the horrors don't return for real, you will cease to believe in them..

Liberals were wrong about how to fight fear. Air America Radio  was not the right way. Air America was a Left Wing Fear Machine. Even though we were the targets, the enemy, the ones they did want to come for, projecting that fear back only made fear worse. Air America strengthened fear in how it tried to fight it.

Laughter is the best medicine against Fear. What Fear fears most is ridicule. Jon Stewart , Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher  have become major figures because laughter trumps fear, just as paper covers rock. When you're laughing at what scares you, it will eventually cease to scare you. You'll see the caricature in time and the Emperor will become naked without realizing it.

So this is a very important time in our lives. It is going to be either the apotheosis or the Waterloo of Fear, the climax of a great battle. With electronic voting machines, yes, this election could be stolen . Those who would steal it will deny they're doing it even as they do it, but at this point that, or a coup, are the only moves left on their board. That's a real Fear.

But if all they really have is Fear, if they're not prepared to bring the temple down on all our heads (and it would be, for American Democracy, just like a nuclear holocaust) then their tide has to start receding. Then they have to make themselves available for judgment, as the Seinfeld cast did in its finale. As you may remember they were convicted for doing nothing. These guys did something. They did a lot of somethings. They committed war crimes. And an honest evaluation of that will kill them, emotionally, spiritually, financially, literally.

So now Fear is on the other foot. And that's something to be scared of. Will Fear lash out, or will Fear strike out?

We'll know in about a week. We'll know if the Fear Show has been renewed. Or maybe they'll be a spin-off.