wayneholland.org

 

THE REAL FEAR FACTOR

February 8, 2008

 

For some time now, I have entertained the notion that this country is basically fucked up as hell. Sometimes (all the time, actually) I go around spouting off about it (to anyone who will listen). And one of the things I always mention is the fact that we supported a television show like Hee Haw for over twenty years. (Tell me that isn't fucked up.)

And just like the Energizer Bunny, it keeps going and going. Today we have Britney Spears and all the other so-called celebrities making it onto the news broadcasts (almost every freaking day it seems). Why the hell is it news that Britney Spears was released from some kind of psycho ward? Fuck Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton, and Lindsey Lohan and all their bullshit overpaid completely unnecessary psycho lives (and anybody else like them).

Well, anyway, now that I've vented ...

Last night I was reading some Noam Chomsky (from Imperial Ambitions) and got an inkling as to why we're so fucked up. We're scared shitless. Show me a person who is afraid, and I'll show you someone that I have no desire to be around. Scared people are dangerous.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the book:

In the United States people don't die laughing. People are afraid of everything. Take the issue of crime. The crime rate in the United States is comparable to that of other industrial societies; it's toward the high end of that scale, but not off the spectrum. Yet fear of crime here is much higher than in other countries. Drug use here is about the same as in any other country, but fear of drugs is off the scale.

(At this point the interviewer asks, "But don't you think media culture contributes to that, all the television shows and movies?")

Maybe, but there is also a background of fear that is also exploited. It probably has to do with the conquest of the continent, when you had to exterminate the native population, and slavery, when you had to control a population that was regarded as dangerous, because you never knew when the slaves might turn on you. And it may also be a reflection of the enormous security we have here. The security of the United States is unparalleled. The United States controls the hemisphere; it controls both oceans and the opposite sides of both oceans. The last time the United States was threatened was during the War of 1812. Since then, it has just conquered others. Somehow this engenders a sense that somebody is going to come after us, and the country ends up being very frightened.

My favorite line is, " ... there is also a background of fear that is also exploited."

Yep, that's the Republican ideology in a nutshell, exploiting the background of fear that is always running as a strong undercurrent in the American psyche. For spice, just add a dash of the Puritan ethic that is also running alongside it. The country is fucked up alright, but the bullshit Republicans do nothing to make it better. In fact, nearly everything they do makes it worse. Fuck the Republicans and the elephant they rode in on.