Oh, what whipped curs Americans are, beaten repeatedly by a controlling and abusive government and the corporations that own it. People are kept in willing line by fear, fear whipped up by a rapacious, greedy media eager to sell us heavy trucks masquerading as passenger vehicles so we feel “safe”. Flogging us between dramatic segments repeating government press releases with bright, vivacious commercials advertising various nostrums and solutions to make us feel pretty despite the flop sweat. Maybe we’d like to buy some of these neat pills to help with that little “problem” caused by all the stress and heavy drinking?
Oh, except that we have to throw our gels and liquids away to get into that tin tube, squeeze into those too-many-to-a-row seats.
Gallon after gallon of bottled water in just about every shape, brand and size were also forsaken. The crackdown came as airport officials expanded the list of banned items after the breakup in London of a plot by terrorists planning to blow up U.S.-bound passenger jets with liquid explosives hidden in carry-on luggage.
It created a state of manageable pandemonium that lasted for hours at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall, Reagan National and Dulles International airports. But the disruptions were endured in an overall spirit of solidarity and goodwill as word of the plot sank in.
“I came this morning thinking all this stuff is just overkill. I’m just not sure the balance is right between inconvenience and all the security,” said Karen Solon, 62, a retired preschool teacher from Falls Church who was flying from Dulles to Canada. “Then they told me about this” plot.
Oh, so happy for the whip when the right incentives are applied. Thank you sir, may I have another?
Nope, no sense of proportion, of real risk.
Yet, peace of mind seems difficult given what’s been occupying the national dialogue: viruses, chemicals, cockpit doors, anthrax spores, decontamination teams, water supplies, FBI warnings, vaccinations, explosive devices, subways, fighter jets, gas masks, box cutters.
Just try to build a world that feels safe with these materials and it collapses under its own weight. When the thoughts you’d normally banish seem vital to your survival, you’re reluctant to turn them off-and it’s harder still when fear is sprayed at you like tear gas from every TV newsroom on every channel nearly every hour of every day. Next up, another terrible thing from someone else’s imagination. Next up, another expert in some terrible science. Next up, another nightmare.
In order to get back to day-to-day life, you’ve had to place events and information into some vague framework. But so many questions linger just beneath consciousness, and so many answers you settled on tentatively call out for affirmation. Who is right-the reassuring public official on the news or the alarming public official in the segment that follows?
It’s too hard to be on duty without a break. It’s too hard to keep up with every new risk. It’s too hard to be anxious all the time. It’s too damn hard.
It’s stressful to live like this, and it is natural for tension to seek resolution. Stretch a rubber band and it snaps back when you let go-but never all the way. Stress and tension change things. This isn’t good or bad: it just is. Change always carries opportunities, and one we have today is the possibility of becoming less controlled by unwarranted fear than we used to be.
Do you know what REALLY will keep you safer? Awareness and knowledge … that’s it. If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time all of the shoe scanning and fear-mongering won’t save you. You’re FAR more likely to have died in your big SUV on the way to the airport because you weren’t paying attention to the road than you are because some zealot smuggled TATP onto the flight. Hell, you’re more likely to have died in your SUV because some asshole cut you off and drove you off the road.
Let’s not even talk about the small army of Timothy McVeighs being trained and recruited in a war zone, soon to come home to a town near you. Even that eventuality pales compared to the risk of slipping and falling in your home.
It’s important to try to learn what the hell is really going on before you give into the fear mongering. Quit believing everything you’re told without questioning it. Be aware of your surroundings, measure the costs and benefits of the choices you make. Be IN the world, instead of merely allowing yourself to be swept along. Yes, the current governing structures, both of the state and the corporations, limit your flexibility, but you can control how you react. Part of that control can come from becoming more involved. If you support fear-mongerers and war-mongerers with your votes, stop it.
Find and nurture some center, some ritual or behavior that helps you keep your head when all around you are losing theirs. Me, I strap on some headphones and fire up some tunes. Works every time.
Today’s random ten:
- “Would” – Alice in Chains
- “Good Times, Bad Times” – Led Zepplin
- “Salesman” – Stan Ridgeway
- “Strange Fruit” – Siouxsie & the Banshees
- “Doing All Right” – Queen
- “How Soon is Now” – The Smiths
- “”Burning House of Love” – X
- “Great King Rat” – Queen
- “You Take My Breath Away” – Queen
- “Loving Cup” – Rolling Stones
Update [2006-8-11 21:50:35 by Madman in the Marketplace]:
Just found this post, which made me smile:
Kung Fu Monkey has some thoughts on risk, response and what fucking spineless wimps we are now:
Maybe it’s just, I cast my eyes back on the last century …
FDR: Oh, I’m sorry, was wiping out our entire Pacific fleet supposed to intimidate us? We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and right now we’re coming to kick your ass with brand new destroyers riveted by waitresses. How’s that going to feel?
CHURCHILL: Yeah, you keep bombing us. We’ll be in the pub, flipping you off. I’m slapping Rolls-Royce engines into untested flying coffins to knock you out of the skies, and then I’m sending angry Welshmen to burn your country from the Rhine to the Polish border.
US. NOW: BE AFRAID!! Oh God, the Brown Bad people could strike any moment! They could strike … NOW!! AHHHH. Okay, how about .. NOW!! AAGAGAHAHAHHAG! Quick, do whatever we tell you, and believe whatever we tell you, or YOU WILL BE KILLED BY BROWN PEOPLE!! PUT DOWN THAT SIPPY CUP!!
… and I’m just a little tired of being on the wrong side of that historical arc.
This is it, folks. This is the world, from now on. Even assuming the War on Terror is a not just a bad metaphor and there is an actual measurable winning point*, the short 4GW struggles last fifty years or so. We’re going to be stopping one or two of these bastard mass-murder plots a year, minimum, for the rest of our lives. Hell, the way terror tactics and tech evolve, five years from now we’re going to be pining for the dudes with the flammable juice boxes.
It’s now part of our life. Let’s try not to hop like the trained monkeys every time it happens.
