- "Dangers bring fears, and fears more dangers bring."
- --Richard Baxter
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- "Everything is connected." Many people accept
the tenability of this aphorism without pausing to ponder its full ramifications.
I see within it a double meaning: firstly, that all life is bound by a
kinship that cannot be seen or touched, but is nevertheless real and
incorruptible; and secondly, that no events occur in isolation -- everything
that happens to the one has some effect on the whole.
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- One must bear in mind the connectedness of all things
when analyzing world events. Seemingly unrelated news items often feature
an underlying commonality, revealing the functioning "paradigm"
that society is currently living under. And even a cursory glance at recent
news headlines reveals that in the United States, the "paradigm"
of the moment is blind and stupid fear.
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- Unfortunately, fear has dominated humanity for thousands
of years, with unfailingly deadly results. In ancient times, human beings
would sacrifice their own children to appease the "angry gods"
residing in the heavens. Millennia later, "witches" were burned
at the stakes by those who believed they were doing the "good work"
of their wrathful Creator. And in modern times, "witches" have
been replaced by the convenient enemy of the moment -- every culture on
Earth has its share of "boogeymen" against whom they wage a
fear-driven war.
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- Of course, in the U.S., the "boogeymen" of
the hour are "terrorists." We had one awful day four-and-a half
years ago, and ever since, the media and the government have actively
mythologized it -- much as the ancients mythologized their catastrophes,
blaming gods and monsters that only existed as projected fantasies. That's
not to say that terrorism isn't a threat in the United States, because
it is. Just as fatty foods are a threat, acid rain is a threat, and second
hand smoke is a threat.
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- When you get behind the wheel of your car, the threat
is truly cataclysmic, much more so than any threat posed by terrorists.
In fact, according to a recent medical study, citizens in the U.S are
142 times more likely to die in a car crash than in a terrorist attack,
and the discrepancy continues to grow. Notice this quote from the study's
abstract: "In 2001, road crash deaths in the US were equal to those
of a September 11 attack every 26 days."
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- Source: http://ip.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/6/332
-
- The constant trumpeting of the "terror" horn
by the Bush administration and their accomplices in the press is not only
shameless, but incredibly dangerous. Just two weeks ago, an unarmed,
mentally disturbed man (Rigoberto Alpizar) was shot and killed by air
marshals who claimed they heard him say the word "bomb." But
he DIDN'T have a bomb, and several witnesses have stated that he never
uttered the "b" word.
-
- See Fact-Checking the Feds in Airport Shooting -
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- http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?
vnu_
- content_id=1001699287
-
- In Britain, Tony Blair's exploitation of "terrorism"
fears have been equally deadly. This past summer, police officers in London
shot an unarmed innocent man seven times, then allegedly made false public
statements to cover it up. The investigation into the shooting death
of Jean Charles de Menezes continues:
-
- http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051209/
british_poli
- ce_menezes_051209/20051209?hub=World)
-
- Both Alpizar and Menezes were dark-skinned men who superficially
matched the accepted profiles of terrorists. These men were innocent
victims of hysteria -- and hysteria is the inevitable mental state of
human beings who willingly surrender to their fears.
-
- "Everything is connected." Let's consider
that statement again. The "fear paradigm" that drives the "War
on Terrorism" and sometimes kills innocent human beings is the taproot
of much violent and grotesque behavior in the United States. Remember,
people don't always do evil things out of viciousness or anger. Sometimes,
they do it because they're scared shitless and don't know any better.
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- Consider this recent news headline from the state of
Georgia: A 19 year old man stands accused of paying a homeless man $5
to drink a poisonous cocktail of cleaning solution. The victim, an alcoholic
who lived near the alleged perpetrator's place of employment, is in critical
condition, his life hanging in the balance. One of the alleged perp's
coworkers witnessed the "prank," and did nothing to stop it.
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- http://www.local6.com/news/5543524/detail.html
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- On the surface, this story may not seem to have any
connection to the shootings of Alpizar and Menezes, but let's examine
the details a bit more closely. Every day, a young man drove to work and
was forced to observe the dirty and disheveled visage of a drunken homeless
man. What did this make him feel? Revulsion? Contempt? Sadistic amusement?
Yes, I'm sure he felt all of those things, but WHY? What force could
have motivated him to perform an act of such numbing cruelty on another
human being?
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- Answer: Because what he hated in the homeless man was
a reflection of what he fears most in himself.
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- This kid probably values and strives to obtain what
most American youths value: money, fame, power, and physical beauty. We
live in a purely ego-driven culture, and those who have been stripped
of everything the ego treasures (i.e. the homeless, the elderly, the
diseased, the infirm) are viewed with contempt...and an unspoken fear.
This boy looked at the homeless man, and saw the manifestation of his
worst nightmare: the loss of everything that makes life "meaningful"
and "good."
-
- The vacuity of American culture has been an underlying
theme in many of my essays. In my opinion, our collective egotism is the
taproot of virtually every manmade calamity in society today. Egos are
dangerous, because they have to believe they're under constant threat
in order to survive. As the spiritual manual A Course in Miracles states,
"The ego lives by comparison." People come to believe in the
eminence of their respective race, nationality, religion, or personal
"grandiosity," and by necessity, this keeps them in opposition
with the rest of humanity.
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- American media very deliberately instill both individual
and collective egotism in their audiences. The consistent message is that
happiness can only be found by being superior to everyone else. We see
this in Hollywood movies, which promote narcissistic values and an attitude
of "fuck everyone on Earth but me." We see it in the national
obsession with professional sports, which bestows obscene wealth and
idolatry upon athletes who have done nothing truly admirable in their
entire lives. And we see it in the nebulous and absurd "War on Terror,"
which foments nationalism while feeding hatred and distrust of our fellow
humans who happen to be Muslim (or even people who resemble Muslims.)
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- As long as we believe in our our own specialness, we
are going to live in fear, because specialness is impermanent. You can
defend it if you choose but it WILL eventually be lost. Great nations
crumble, and are left as nothing but entries in history books. Just as
the most "special" human beings obtain everything the ego desires,
then watch helplessly as it all turns to a pile of dust.
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- We have only one means to overcome this oppressive and
self-annihiliating fear, and that is to recognize our intrinsic connectedness
and dependence on one another. Instead of forcing our children to recite
the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, we should kindly ask them to place
their hands on their hearts and state, "I need everyone, and everyone
needs me." This is not a declaration of any political ideology; it
is a simple statement of fact. Because all things and people are connected,
and to deny this reality is to condemn oneself to a state of fear.
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- And fear murders. And murders. Interminably.
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