"It's kept us vigilant. But it's also become the political weapon of choice. We saw that during the Cold War, too. It was Sen. Arthur Vandenberg who created an enduring adage when he advised President Harry Truman to "scare the hell out of the country" to get his agenda through Congress. Some have come to believe that terror alerts and target lists have been used to stoke perhaps more fear than is necessary."
>From The Washington Post:
>From Cold War To Code Red, The Aura of Fear
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12910-2004Sep10?language=printer
By Lynne Duke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 11, 2004; Page C01
Back then, there were blacklists. Now, we've got no-fly lists. Then, we had the Doomsday Clock. Now, we've got the looming Code Red terror alert. Schoolchildren trained a generation ago to duck for cover under their desks (as if that was protection from a nuclear bomb!). Now, they are parents who fine-tune their families' terror evacuation plans (and wonder: Can we really escape?). snip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In three short years, we've already become accustomed to fear.
In profound ways, fear is redefining our lives, as well as the paradigm of our politics. Unlike the presidential election of 2000, this time we're voting with fear as a backdrop. Fear factors into our daily plans. We're reflexively responding to it, expecting the worst, as when that pepper spray episode on K Street last week seemed like a terror incident and sent the stock market tumbling. From fear. Fear is real, even justified. But it is also a problem, some scholars say, for one of the greatest lessons of the Cold War is that we should be afraid, very afraid, of the things fear can make a society do. Just say the word: McCarthyism.
During the Cold War, we feared the "fellow travelers" in our midst. Now, we fear "enemy combatants." And the Constitution has again become a battleground over the rights of all citizens in order to protect us from a few. But the fear of this age is very different. "I think things are worse now, because it's the fear of the unknown," says Jerrold M. Post, professor of psychiatry and political psychology at George Washington University. He is former director of the CIA's Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. snip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Fear is essentially a political emotion, and a politically manipulated emotion at that," says Michael Ignatieff, director of the Carr Center at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. "So we have to be wary, as citizens, of any political leader who says 'Be afraid. Be very afraid. And vote for me and you'll be safe.' " ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12910-2004Sep10?language=printer ============================= "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time
and your government when it deserves it." --Mark Twain
Leigh Meyers leighcmeyers at yahoo.com