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.
Oh, sure, that’s right. We’re just fearful, ignorant, gullible rubes. After all, if we were as smart and brave as you are, of course we would think and vote EXACTLY like YOU!!!
Oh, sure, that’s right. We’re just fearful, ignorant, gullible rubes. After all, if we were as smart and brave as you are, of course we would think and vote EXACTLY like YOU!!!
Dana, the ironic bit here is that you’re frantically pushing the Fear button to make your argument against fear.
And using Nixon?? C’mon! Nixon gave us the EPA, the minimum wage, and extricated the U.S. from Vietnam. He was more of a Democrat than Harold Ford, if you’ve looked at their policies and you’re being really honest.
Hey, if you’re going to rail against fear mongering then by all means do it for both sides. Air America Radio, sure: but also the sort of fear mongering that had James Carville literally snarling that Republicans were deliberately trying to starve babies. Or the sort of fear mongering that posits that monitoring the phone calls of terrorists is somehow more potentially damaging to American liberties than death at the hands of those same terrorists from negligent intelligence gathering.
In 1992 it was “the economy, Stupid.” (Interesting, since in the big picture government has little to do with a free market economy.) Well, the economy is pretty good now. So now the issue is a primary purpose of government itself as outlined in the Preamble to the Constitution. Securing our country. The question in this election is how best to do that. It’s not enough to say that the incumbents are doing it wrong; if you want to replace them you also have to say exactly what you’d do to do that job better. Sadly, it’s an argument the Democrats have yet to make. Instead they’ve chosen to pit distrust against fear. Whichever argument wins, one thing is certain: Richard Nixon’s not in this race.
Dana, the ironic bit here is that you’re frantically pushing the Fear button to make your argument against fear.
And using Nixon?? C’mon! Nixon gave us the EPA, the minimum wage, and extricated the U.S. from Vietnam. He was more of a Democrat than Harold Ford, if you’ve looked at their policies and you’re being really honest.
Hey, if you’re going to rail against fear mongering then by all means do it for both sides. Air America Radio, sure: but also the sort of fear mongering that had James Carville literally snarling that Republicans were deliberately trying to starve babies. Or the sort of fear mongering that posits that monitoring the phone calls of terrorists is somehow more potentially damaging to American liberties than death at the hands of those same terrorists from negligent intelligence gathering.
In 1992 it was “the economy, Stupid.” (Interesting, since in the big picture government has little to do with a free market economy.) Well, the economy is pretty good now. So now the issue is a primary purpose of government itself as outlined in the Preamble to the Constitution. Securing our country. The question in this election is how best to do that. It’s not enough to say that the incumbents are doing it wrong; if you want to replace them you also have to say exactly what you’d do to do that job better. Sadly, it’s an argument the Democrats have yet to make. Instead they’ve chosen to pit distrust against fear. Whichever argument wins, one thing is certain: Richard Nixon’s not in this race.