Got Fear?
Over the past few weeks it has occurred to me that the majority of the literature that Ive been reading (as chance would have it) has been on the topic of the increased use of fear in the American political process. The authors of the various literature has scrutinized it in interesting ways. A few examples of the material Ive been reading has been the new Al Gore book “The Assault on Reason”, the cover story of last week’s Newsweek by Fareed Zakaria “How to Restore America’s Place in the World”, and the Time article “Immigration: The Case for Amnesty” to name a few. Ive been cognizant of the fear tactic that has been in practice for many years now, but it has noticeably risen and become more relevant during the years of the Bush administration, primarily due to the war and the boogeyman of terrorism. It has been succeessful in part because of the sheer ignorance of Americans in the political process and their indifferece about what our leaders in Washington are doing. Even on the 24 hour news cycles the topic of fear in the process has been covered, well at least when they are not covering Paris Hilton’s incarceration saga. The media reporting it like it is a new phenomenon. And as if they have not been vehicles for it.
Gore’s book does a very thorough job in explaining this phenomenon in politics. The book combines history of our country via the Founders, human psychology, and policy in addressing various topics such as religion, wealth, and climate as they relate to politics. He addresses fear at the top of the book, the chapter titled “ The Politics of Fear”. In the course of this chapter Gore quotes the Roman philosopher Lactantius, who says, “where fear is present, wisdom cannot be”. Which I think is extremely relevant in our time bc we have a President who lacks the wisdom and does not take into consideration advice from those who do. Not to mention his faous quote of telling the world that “youre either with us or against us”. Gore cites examples by the President in this chapter in which he has played on the fears of the citizenry post 9/11. He did this by using three techniques identified by USC sociology professor Barry Glassner (author of The Culture of FEAR) that make up “fearmongering”. These techniques include “repetition, making the irregular seem regular, and misdirection.” These tactics were used by the President in making his case to invade Iraq. Gore delineates these - repetition (repeating the same threat of Saddam Hussein over and over again), “misdirecting attention (from al-Qaeda to Saddam Hussein), and using vivid imagery (a “mushroom cloud over an American city”).” These tactics in combination with the President summoning Americans to “imagine” what the fear of another terrorist attack would be like after the nation endured on 9/11 allow him to bypass the reasoning functioning of the citizenry (Gore details the psychology of this in the book). Gore notes that “terrorism relies on the stimulation of fear for political ends. Indeed, its specific goal is to distort the political reality of a nation by creating fear in the general population that is hugely disproportionate to the actual danger that the terrorists are capable of posing.” I think that this sums of the years of the Bush administration post-9/11. Bush and his cabinet have manipulated the psychology of the citizenry by the “fear” of bearded brown men trying to destruct American democracy...or has it been destructed by this Administration. Time will tell....
Fareed Zakaria’s article looks to life after Bush. The article itself is wholly optimistic and in the seven pages he lays it down! However, there is much work to be done. One example is seen in a new global survey that Zakaria includes that found that “most nations polled believed that China would act more responsibly in the world than the Untied States. The problem isn’t that America is too strong, but that it’s seen as too arrogant and insensitive.” Zakaria goes on to wonder “how does a Leninist government comes across more sympathetically than the oldest constitutional democracy in the world?” The answer he posits is that we have become so entranced with our notions of terrorism that we have stopped listening to the rest of the world. He finds more troubling than Bush’s rhetoric is the GOP candidates. For example, (and the use of fear) is Rudy Giuliani’s speech at Atlanta’s Oglethorpe University, where he told the audience that “they hate you!” and furthermore that “we are facing an enemy that is planning all over this world, and it turns out planning inside our country, to come here and kill us.” Zakaria notes this has been his M.O. on the campaign trail. All of this in the face of heightened defense spending in the last five years to the tune of $187 billion (that is the budgets of China, Russia, India and Britain COMBINED). The terrorist attacks that have since occurred in around the world subsequent to 9/11 have been local groups. However, in the US the advantage we have is that we do not have a radicalized domesti population. Zakaria points out that American Muslims are generally middle class, moderate, and well assimilated.
Terrorism is the only concern to look to after Bush. But the issue of immigration will be another. And once again fear tactics are being used, most notably by CNN’s Lou Dobbs who nightly whips up hysteria up the borders. Zakaria ironically points out that the Republican party (the party of free enterprise) has dedicated itself to a huge buildup of police power to stop people from working. Zakaria uses the duration of his article to delineate how the US can recover its place in the world. In his TIME article, Nathan Thornburgh makes the case for the dreaded word that has been attached to the President’s immigration bill by his party - AMNESTY. Thornburgh puts forth five reasons why amnesty can work for America. His reasons make sense to me as someone who has worked and studied in the field of immigration. There are 12 million illegal immigrants here in this country, thinking that deportation of these people is going to work is grossly naive. Not to mention the fact that these immigrants are too vital to a healthy US economy. The Senate compromise on the bill is anything but a free pass to illegal immigrants. It calls for a 13-year process including $5,000 in fines per person, benchmarks for learning English and an onerous "touchback" provision that calls for the head of each household to leave job and family behind and return to his or her home country for an indeterminate amount of time to queue up for the final green card. Nothing free about that.
The politicians who use fear as a way to drum up protest of this bill are playing on the ignorance of the citizenry. Yes, Mexicans speak Spanish. Just like Indians speak their native tongue or Chinese their native tongue or Egyptians Arabic. The point being that all these groups know that to get ahead in the US knowledge of English is a must. And that is the sole reason for their eagerness to come the the US. Assimilation is a slow process, but will happen. Im reminded of a quote that I heard a few years ago in which a man asked, “How many generations does one have live in America to be considered American?” The notion that illegal immigrants would destroy the fabric of this nation is ludicrous. This country has taken in immigrants from all over the world and assimilated them into American society and culture. Why would illegal immigrants be any different? Amnesty of the 12 million illegal immigrants is a proposition that I agree with because I understand that these people are not criminals as some would lead you to believe. Rather, they are individuals similar to immigrants groups that are in America to find the proverbial “American Dream”. Legalizing the illegals will help law enforcement focus on the real criminals.
Gore’s book does a very thorough job in explaining this phenomenon in politics. The book combines history of our country via the Founders, human psychology, and policy in addressing various topics such as religion, wealth, and climate as they relate to politics. He addresses fear at the top of the book, the chapter titled “ The Politics of Fear”. In the course of this chapter Gore quotes the Roman philosopher Lactantius, who says, “where fear is present, wisdom cannot be”. Which I think is extremely relevant in our time bc we have a President who lacks the wisdom and does not take into consideration advice from those who do. Not to mention his faous quote of telling the world that “youre either with us or against us”. Gore cites examples by the President in this chapter in which he has played on the fears of the citizenry post 9/11. He did this by using three techniques identified by USC sociology professor Barry Glassner (author of The Culture of FEAR) that make up “fearmongering”. These techniques include “repetition, making the irregular seem regular, and misdirection.” These tactics were used by the President in making his case to invade Iraq. Gore delineates these - repetition (repeating the same threat of Saddam Hussein over and over again), “misdirecting attention (from al-Qaeda to Saddam Hussein), and using vivid imagery (a “mushroom cloud over an American city”).” These tactics in combination with the President summoning Americans to “imagine” what the fear of another terrorist attack would be like after the nation endured on 9/11 allow him to bypass the reasoning functioning of the citizenry (Gore details the psychology of this in the book). Gore notes that “terrorism relies on the stimulation of fear for political ends. Indeed, its specific goal is to distort the political reality of a nation by creating fear in the general population that is hugely disproportionate to the actual danger that the terrorists are capable of posing.” I think that this sums of the years of the Bush administration post-9/11. Bush and his cabinet have manipulated the psychology of the citizenry by the “fear” of bearded brown men trying to destruct American democracy...or has it been destructed by this Administration. Time will tell....
Fareed Zakaria’s article looks to life after Bush. The article itself is wholly optimistic and in the seven pages he lays it down! However, there is much work to be done. One example is seen in a new global survey that Zakaria includes that found that “most nations polled believed that China would act more responsibly in the world than the Untied States. The problem isn’t that America is too strong, but that it’s seen as too arrogant and insensitive.” Zakaria goes on to wonder “how does a Leninist government comes across more sympathetically than the oldest constitutional democracy in the world?” The answer he posits is that we have become so entranced with our notions of terrorism that we have stopped listening to the rest of the world. He finds more troubling than Bush’s rhetoric is the GOP candidates. For example, (and the use of fear) is Rudy Giuliani’s speech at Atlanta’s Oglethorpe University, where he told the audience that “they hate you!” and furthermore that “we are facing an enemy that is planning all over this world, and it turns out planning inside our country, to come here and kill us.” Zakaria notes this has been his M.O. on the campaign trail. All of this in the face of heightened defense spending in the last five years to the tune of $187 billion (that is the budgets of China, Russia, India and Britain COMBINED). The terrorist attacks that have since occurred in around the world subsequent to 9/11 have been local groups. However, in the US the advantage we have is that we do not have a radicalized domesti population. Zakaria points out that American Muslims are generally middle class, moderate, and well assimilated.
Terrorism is the only concern to look to after Bush. But the issue of immigration will be another. And once again fear tactics are being used, most notably by CNN’s Lou Dobbs who nightly whips up hysteria up the borders. Zakaria ironically points out that the Republican party (the party of free enterprise) has dedicated itself to a huge buildup of police power to stop people from working. Zakaria uses the duration of his article to delineate how the US can recover its place in the world. In his TIME article, Nathan Thornburgh makes the case for the dreaded word that has been attached to the President’s immigration bill by his party - AMNESTY. Thornburgh puts forth five reasons why amnesty can work for America. His reasons make sense to me as someone who has worked and studied in the field of immigration. There are 12 million illegal immigrants here in this country, thinking that deportation of these people is going to work is grossly naive. Not to mention the fact that these immigrants are too vital to a healthy US economy. The Senate compromise on the bill is anything but a free pass to illegal immigrants. It calls for a 13-year process including $5,000 in fines per person, benchmarks for learning English and an onerous "touchback" provision that calls for the head of each household to leave job and family behind and return to his or her home country for an indeterminate amount of time to queue up for the final green card. Nothing free about that.
The politicians who use fear as a way to drum up protest of this bill are playing on the ignorance of the citizenry. Yes, Mexicans speak Spanish. Just like Indians speak their native tongue or Chinese their native tongue or Egyptians Arabic. The point being that all these groups know that to get ahead in the US knowledge of English is a must. And that is the sole reason for their eagerness to come the the US. Assimilation is a slow process, but will happen. Im reminded of a quote that I heard a few years ago in which a man asked, “How many generations does one have live in America to be considered American?” The notion that illegal immigrants would destroy the fabric of this nation is ludicrous. This country has taken in immigrants from all over the world and assimilated them into American society and culture. Why would illegal immigrants be any different? Amnesty of the 12 million illegal immigrants is a proposition that I agree with because I understand that these people are not criminals as some would lead you to believe. Rather, they are individuals similar to immigrants groups that are in America to find the proverbial “American Dream”. Legalizing the illegals will help law enforcement focus on the real criminals.
posted by ndnokayplayer at 2:08 PM
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