The Only Thing We Have To Fear...

...is the person who insists that we should be afraid.

If we listen to the politicians and pundits, then clearly the terrorists are winning. They've succeeded. We feel terrorized.

I, for one, am truly tired of the hyperbolic terrorism hype. Our reaction to terrorism has been a creeping loss of freedom. Isn't that what the terrorists wanted in the first place? Don't expect anyone in the Department of Homeland Security to admit that there's really not much they can do to protect us: they have their jobs to protect. They are motivated to keep us feeling terrorized. To do otherwise would invalidate their reason for existence, and people rarely do that.

Our representatives in the government aren't any better. They've all been forced to jump on the bandwagon, because to be off of the bandwagon is a recipe for not getting reelected. Why? Because sometimes it seems as if the news media is the advertising arm of the terrorists organizations, reinforcing the message every day with reminders that the bad guys are out there, and therefore we're not safe. Our representatives can't talk about the reality of this situation, or the real problems facing America today, because those things are boring. The media can't sell adspace if the product is boring, so virtually all news outlets have become parodies of Hard Copy. (There's even a parody of the parodies now: The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.)

Who can resist looking at the WTC burn and fall? Who can resist listening to experts tell us that there are bad people who want to kill our children? It's like pornography. It seizes the mind and won't let go, making us victims against our will. What business could resist such an easy path to profitability? What politician could resist such an easy path to victory? (Apparently, not very many.)

So we're in a Catch-22. The people we rely upon to help us can't or won't help, because that might put them out of a job. They're simply not motivated to help. They're motivated to keep their jobs, and the best way to do that is to make sure we remain afraid. Battle over. The terrorists win.

So what can we do?

First, take 10 minutes and read John Mueller's article, "A False Sense of Insecurity" (http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv27n3/v27n3-5.pdf). Mueller's article helps to clarify the true state of things, free of hype. Here are a few highlights:

Quote: "...the number of Americans killed by terrorism since the late 1960s is about the same number of Americans killed over the same period by ... severe allergic reaction to peanuts."

(Peanuts! Oh my god! Why isn't there a Department of Severe Allergic Reactions to protect us from this menace? We should definitely make peanuts illegal.)

Quote: "...an American's chance of being killed in one nonstop airline flight is one in 13 million (even taking the September 11 crashes into account). To reach that same level of risk when driving on America's safest roads -- rural interstate highways -- one would have to travel a mere 11.2 miles."

(So......I'm thinking about having metal detectors installed the doors of my car and hiring some people to make sure nobody gets in with anything that could hurt me. And no carry-on baggage for you! What's in that bottle?!? Hmmm??? Water, you say? Oh really...)

Quote: "It seems impossible that the United States will ever again experience takeovers of commercial flights that are turned into weapons -- no pilot will relinquish control, and passengers will fight."

(You're **** right we will! But if they take my shoes and laptop away, then I'll have nothing to throw...)

Ahhh. Some sanity. Clarity. Reality. Finally.

Once you've pondered that article's message, I have a couple of suggestions that might help to change things, albeit slowly:

(1) Vote anyone out of office who uses fear as a platform. Anyone. Even if the alternative is in the 'wrong' party.

(2) Turn off the fear-hyping TV shows, and cancel your subscription to any fear-mongering newspapers. They will either change their tune, or go out of business.

(3) Transform the debate from defensive to offensive. Don't let them make you feel weak and unsafe. Acknowledge that there are criminals out there who need to be brought to justice, and deal with them the same way we do burglars. Let the cops hunt them down, and put them in jail.

Does keeping a gun in your home actually keep criminals away? No. Do you feel safer? Somewhat. But are you actually statistically safer? Probably not -- because now you have a gun in your house! (Remember: the person most likely to be shot by your gun during a burglary is: you.) So now we have a Department of Homeland Security in our country to keep us safe from something that isn't really any more dangerous than eating peanuts or driving down the street. Are we truly safer? Probably not, because now we have a gun in the house.

We need to shake off this fear-based mindset. If we can do that, then we'll send the terrorists the message they dread the most:

You have failed. We do not fear you.

The Definition of Terrorism

Okay, so I know that the most widely accepted definition of "terrorist" is someone who blows stuff up in order to forward some agenda. However, if the ultimate goal of a terrorist is to get us to change our behavior, then it would seem that blowing stuff up is no longer a requirement. All that's really required now is a good scary report on the news, or a politician reminding us that we could be blown to smithereens at any moment. No actual explosions, dismembered bodies, or actual deaths are really required any more. All you need to qualify as a terrorist now is to constantly remind people of what could happen if we're not vigilant.

Good job, Osama. You can relax now. Our politicians and news media have taken over the job, so you don't really have to do anything anymore.

WTC as metaphor: hit us hard, stand back, and eventually we fall.