These two post really suggest to me that we are seeing a swing in the mindset of our nation. We are moving away from fear, and starting to recognize a need for personal bravery in our everyday life.
About 10 years ago -- before the day that everything changed -- at an AA meeting I said our children are far stronger than we give them credit. I was personally attacked by several of the members that day for having the audacity to trust the safety and well-being of my children. I shook my head in amazement and left it alone, believing they would eventually learn to move away from fear. Little did I know that this was simply a symptom of the fear and cowardice that has already inflicted our nation.
Without the attacks on September 11, 2001, George W. Bush would have been a one-term president, just like his father. But after decades of fear-mongering by the conservatives in the Republican party, and a lack of personal bravery by the conservatives in the Democratic party, the attacks only strengthened the already perceived danger of life. Fear became an overwhelming force in this country. Where rational thought once was the hallmark of facing life, it was wholeheartedly abandoned that day, and our hopes and desires for safety were handed to a man completely unprepared for leadership during unremarkable times, let alone extraordinary times.
However, in terms of fear being a motivational force in electoral outcomes, George W. Bush was the pinnacle of success. Today, the majority of people will simply not vote out of fear. As a populous, I think we have learned our lessons in that regard. Like it or not, the idea of Iraq as a mistake is more or less established, with only hair-brained future conspiracy theorists making any claim to the opposite; dead-enders hanging on to that last little hope of re-establishing relevance and power through belief in fear and cowardice, a legacy of failure handed to them by their elders.
Now, the Hullabaloo post is an example of the media pinnacle of success. At least for Fox News. In more ways than I can really due justice in describing, Glenn Beck's show is a self-parody of the Fox News mind-set. It is paranoid schizophrenic thinking laid bare for all to see. If there is one thing to be grateful about, it is that this is occurring mostly in the media, and not on the floor of the congress, as happened in the 1950s with McCarthy. None-the-less, Glenn Beck is pulling on the last, lingering, strings of fear that are entwined around a small, but extremely vocal, percentage of the populous; elders of the hair-brained future conspiracy theorists.
About 10 years ago -- before the day that everything changed -- at an AA meeting I said our children are far stronger than we give them credit. I was personally attacked by several of the members that day for having the audacity to trust the safety and well-being of my children. I shook my head in amazement and left it alone, believing they would eventually learn to move away from fear. Little did I know that this was simply a symptom of the fear and cowardice that has already inflicted our nation.
Without the attacks on September 11, 2001, George W. Bush would have been a one-term president, just like his father. But after decades of fear-mongering by the conservatives in the Republican party, and a lack of personal bravery by the conservatives in the Democratic party, the attacks only strengthened the already perceived danger of life. Fear became an overwhelming force in this country. Where rational thought once was the hallmark of facing life, it was wholeheartedly abandoned that day, and our hopes and desires for safety were handed to a man completely unprepared for leadership during unremarkable times, let alone extraordinary times.
However, in terms of fear being a motivational force in electoral outcomes, George W. Bush was the pinnacle of success. Today, the majority of people will simply not vote out of fear. As a populous, I think we have learned our lessons in that regard. Like it or not, the idea of Iraq as a mistake is more or less established, with only hair-brained future conspiracy theorists making any claim to the opposite; dead-enders hanging on to that last little hope of re-establishing relevance and power through belief in fear and cowardice, a legacy of failure handed to them by their elders.
Now, the Hullabaloo post is an example of the media pinnacle of success. At least for Fox News. In more ways than I can really due justice in describing, Glenn Beck's show is a self-parody of the Fox News mind-set. It is paranoid schizophrenic thinking laid bare for all to see. If there is one thing to be grateful about, it is that this is occurring mostly in the media, and not on the floor of the congress, as happened in the 1950s with McCarthy. None-the-less, Glenn Beck is pulling on the last, lingering, strings of fear that are entwined around a small, but extremely vocal, percentage of the populous; elders of the hair-brained future conspiracy theorists.
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