Scary Stuff
I accepted an award not long ago with the words
Fear is a scary thing.
And it is.
This is from the Power of Nightmares:
In the past, politicians promised to create a better world.
They had different ways of achieving this. But their power and authority came from the optimistic visions they offered to their people. Those dreams failed. And today, people have lost faith in ideologies.
Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life. But now, they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us from nightmares.
They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest danger of all is international terrorism.
A powerful and sinister network, with sleeper cells in countries across the world. A threat that needs to be fought by a war on terror. But much of this threat is a fantasy, which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It’s a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media.
This BBC documentary shows how and why that fantasy was created, and who it benefits.
This is particulary relevant today, because just this week, ABC News broke a story about a secret FBI report that reveals that,
Well, there aren't any sleeper cells.
In Lackawanna or anyplace else.
Pretty Scary Stuff.
Remember to right click on the screen to watch it in Real Player.
If that doesn't scare you,
How about the Bolton appointment to the UN?
Isn't appointing John Bolton to the U.N.
a little like appointing Dracula to a blood bank?
Here is Jon Stewart.
This is in quicktime.
And here is Paul Krugman
explaining the Great Unraveling.
If you are new to earthfamilyalpha
here are some principles and other philosophical foundations.
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posted by oZ @ 8:08 AM
5 Comments:
michael, keep it up; you deserve a big audience; i'm reminded of an old quote by karel capek that goes something like "the simplest and most difficult thing for a writer to do is tell the truth"
I watched the BBC Documentary.
Truly amazing.
If you are from around here, there is some great stuff on blogs and the global internet at the convention center today.
"In order to propagate virtu to the world, one must first rules one's contry.
In order to rule one's country, one must first rule one's family.
In order to rule one's family, onr must first regulate one's body by moral training.
In order to regulate one's body, one must first regulate one's mind.
In order to regulate one's mind, one must first be sincere in one's intentions.
In order to be sincere in one's intentions, one must first increase one's knowledge."
Confucius from the book of Merlyn.
To me, the most important question is:
"Why does fear work?"
And second,
"Why does fear work better than hope?"
Look for a minute at the path we follow in our traditional "career" path -
1. We gain learning.
2. We get a job to apply that learning.
3. We do reasonably well, surviving lay-offs and garnering promotions.
4. What we knew dictates what we get - so that when what we know is in conflict with what we knew, what we know creates problems. We need someone to help us deny what we know.
5. Along come the proponents of fear. Their first message is that what we knew is right. The second message is that when what we know differs from what we knew, what we know must be the agenda of those that would take what we got (which of course was based on what we knew).
6. Politically, this is radical "conservatism." Not conservative, just conservatism. But it works.
So what is the ontology of hope?
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