Bush: We Have Nothing To Sell But Fear Itself - Greg Palast

[kpete]

Greg Palast
GregPalast.com
07.26.06
Armed Madhouse: Part VIII

George and Tony get their Al-Qaeda fix

.................

Our "War President," as he arrogantly calls himself, is having a little problem with his War on Terror. The enemy's gone AWOL. Except when we go looking for trouble, as in invading Mesopotamia. Otherwise, trouble pretty much stopped looking for us. Admit it, we're pretty darn safe.

America is not under attack. There is no WAR on terror because, except for one day five years ago, there has been no terror attack. This isn't Lebanon or Israel or Chechnya. We don't go to a pizza parlor wondering if we'll get our keisters blown off before the last slice. This is not Iraq, with the daily bombing in the Kasbah as Shias, Sunnis, Turkmen and Kurds settle matters of religion and petroleum with Semtex.


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Our leaders are counting on cowardice in the hearts of the heartland. In 2004, the Republicans' unstated reelection campaign slogan was, "They are coming to get us. "Americans, scared for their lives, soiled their underpants and waddled to the polls crying, "Georgie, save us!" From his bunker, Mr. Cheney has created a government that is little more than a Wal-Mart of Fear: midnight snatchings of citizens for uncharged crimes, wars to hunt for imaginary weapons aimed at Los Angeles, DNA data banks of kids and grandmas, even the Chicken Little sky-is-falling Social Security spook-show.

In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt calmed a nation when he said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Today, George Bush says, "We have nothing to sell but fear itself."

more at:
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=21145

[neoblues]

1. How Art Made The World... (PBS)

Episode: To Death and Back

In this program, they cover how humans use the image of death--largely for comfort. Anyway, in their search for answers, they investigate ancient societies and in particular, the ones that used images of death and horror to the greatest extent--and asked why.

The answer, it appears, is that the ruling class and/or their religion demanded sacrifices to ensure good times. In order to get those sacrifices, they captured people from other nearby, competing, civilizations (thus further improving their success and good times via the reduction of competition and maintaining their military power to feed their habits).

Of interest, though, was that they mentioned some modern psychological research. Studies show that when people are reminded (subconsciously even) of their own mortality, they display an increase in aggressive behavior against those outside of their own group.

The Bush Administration, relying on producing fear in their 'subjects', the people of America, have chosen well. They probably didn't even know about this particular aspect of the value of creating fear in their citizens (since the use of fear has long been used by leaders to manipulate their followers) for achieving control. Human psychology being used against us, we fall into their hands--happily attacking others (not all of us, obviously). How convenient it was, too, that they happened to have managed to take effective control over the Mass Media (M$M)--perfect for conveying images of death and producing fear (though, granted, they haven't resorted to displaying all the horrors and gore they could have--but they don't have to do that, subtle suggestion is apparently quite sufficient).

So, if you see images or reminders of Death or how fragile human life is... just realize that it stimulates a sort of instinct for incresed hostility towards "others" (outsiders, foreigners, etc--and the farther away, out of sight, out of mind, the better). Perhaps that's why so many don't really seem to care very much--so long as it's happening to those distant, different "others". Curious that the very harm that comes to them itself might tend to stimulate our indifference towards them.

[RethugAssKicker]

2. Agree wholeheartedly... This "terror" thing is so over blown..

But it is serving their purposes grandly !

Its a shame how stupid the American public is !

[formercia]

3. The man behind the curtain

There comes a point when people just pull back the curtain and walk away.

In a way, their strategy has worked very well. We have been so terrorized by the administration to the point of being insensitive to it. Now, the Supreme Leader wannabe can perpetrate any horror he choses, knowing that the population is so numbed to horror, a terminal reaction just won't occur. As long as the never-ending series of carnage and destruction doesn't exceed the threshold, this could go on forever.


I remember the Serb War Criminal being asked if he was bothered by the memory of his victims. "Their tears are like rain." he replied

[Amonester]

4. Yep. The PNAC's criminal crackpots knew their "New Pearl

Harbor" would give them a blank check...

(Almost) everything else (their "winning the hearts and minds" and their "welcomed with flowers" jokes) was clearly just BS propaganda from delirious crackpots and they're not paying the 'price' yet.

Will they ever?

Justice? Wutz dat?

[DemReadingDU]

5. K&R