a useful fear
Sep. 25th, 2006 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonThanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
phyrday for the Leonard Pitts article below that triggered these musings.
Fear is a teacher. Fear can be a clear signal that something is wrong, something urgently needs to be attended to, changed or fixed. Fear can be a useful spur to take necessary action: fight, flight, or some more creative solution. Fear is so primal, so powerful, it can cut right through the endless deluge of trivial information and daily B.S. that we are bombarded with constantly. It gets our attention like almost nothing else will.
But constant fear is not a healthy condition under which to live. Over time, fear damages the psyche, degrades and poisons rational thought. And fear is not an excuse for wrong, immoral or unethical acts. Because while fear is an emotion, a biochemical, physiological and psychological response, there are reasonable, rational levels of fear. Even powerful emotions like fear need to have limits, have to be under some kind of control, and fear, even powerful fear, does not excuse all choices. Our legal system bases decisions on self-defence as a matter of whether there was a "reasonable fear" for one's own life. It is not okay, legally or ethically, for me to go out and kill someone merely because I am afraid of them, of what they might do, or what they could do. There must be a reasonable fear -- a fear that is based on some sort of rational judgement that stands up to scrutiny. But history shows that people who are living in constant, chronic fear, often make unreasonable decisions.
Fear -- constant, unceasing, endless cycles of fear -- of communists, immigrants, people of different religions, races or sexual orientations, athiests, anarchists, terrorists, of people somewhere, somehow having so much power over us that they threaten "our way of life," is what our government's leadership depends upon to keep us in line. Living in fear, we do not adequately question the choices and actions which our government makes. We follow the shallow, simple promises that we are given, that we will be "taken care of," like children, if only we trust, have faith, and do not look too closely. If we did really look, which we might do if we did not live in such constant fear, we might see that these fear-fueled actions taken in our name are not only, upon rational inspection, idiotic, wasteful, unwise, benefit only those in power, and morally bankrupt, they are also, in themselves, the real threat to "our way of life," to our freedom, and to our world.
It is not true that "all we have to fear is fear itself." What we have to fear is the deliberate and continual state of fear those who lead us wish to achieve. While our minds, hearts and souls are choking on the steady diet of fear they feed us, while we are paralyzed by fear, we will follow anyone who promises an end to that fear. But the actions they take not only fail to end the fear, they in fact guarantee a world ruled by fear, and thus by the worst, most shadow-filled, irrational, nightmare side of human nature.
Fear is not the enemy. Those who depend on fear as a tool to rule and control us are the enemy. The real terrorists are those who deliberately spread terror for their own selfish ends, and many of those terrorists are right here at home, in our own cities, sitting in our own centers of local, state and national government. And if that doesn't make you afraid -- a deep, powerful but reasonable fear, of a kind which inspires you to take clear, rational, and forceful action -- it should.
-------
Powell Belatedly Joins Bid to Save Our Nation's Soul
by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Colin L. Powell is late. Late by weeks, late by months. Truth to tell, late by years.
"The world," he wrote in a letter to Sen. John McCain this month, "is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism."
The eyes goggle at the word, neon-obvious in its understatement. Beginning to doubt? "Beginning"?
Au contraire. Surely the world began to doubt when we barreled unilaterally into Iraq, crying, "WMD! WMD!" Surely the world began to doubt when, finding no weapons of mass destruction, we declared that not finding them didn't matter. Surely the world began to doubt when it read headlines of our soldiers committing acts of torture at Abu Ghraib. Surely the world began to doubt when news broke of the U.S. sending alleged terrorists to countries where they could be tortured. Surely the world began to doubt when Vice President Dick Cheney lobbied to exempt the CIA from rules prohibiting torture. Surely the world has doubted for a long time now.
Mr. Powell's letter was meant as a show of support for a group of dissident GOP senators on the Armed Services Committee - Mr. McCain, John W. Warner, Lindsey Graham, Susan M. Collins - who joined Democrats in rebuffing a White House legislative attempt to reinterpret Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
The White House wanted to allow the use of torture in the interrogation of supposed terrorists. President Bush also wanted to be able to try alleged terrorists without allowing them to see the evidence against them - the very definition of a kangaroo court. (Under the agreement reached Thursday, the White House dropped its insistence on barring suspects from access to evidence.)
It's a mark of how far we have fallen since Sept. 11, 2001, that these things are even being discussed. So, belated as it is, Mr. Powell's evocation of morality also feels, paradoxically, like the timeliest of reminders for a nation that has so obviously forgotten who and what it is supposed to be.
Before 9/11, this country, whose moral authority much of the world is "beginning to doubt," inspired much of the world with that very moral authority. Imperfect and even hypocritical as we often were, we were in many ways the world's moral policeman, the nation that held other nations accountable on issues of human rights. We preached that gospel to Beijing, Moscow, Havana. Friends and enemies might have thought us a tad too idealistic, a bit too naive, a Boy Scout in the community of nations, but many of them admired us, too, for our decency, our square-jawed spirit of can-do, our faith in the power of right.
Then we got scared. And fear changed everything.
We are often told that terrorists threaten our "way of life." We hear this so often that it's jolting to realize it's not true.
Oh, they threaten our lives, certainly. Your life, mine. But our "way" of life? No.
Granted, that's a broad and vaguely defined term - but still, no. Whether you take it to mean things frivolous (baseball, MTV, fireworks on the Fourth) or things fundamental (freedom of speech, equality under the law, the native idealism of our national character), there is no way suicide bombers and fanatics with box cutters can destroy our way of life.
Unless we let them. Unless we, in fear, knuckle down and destroy it ourselves.
This, I think, was the line drawn by four GOP senators and the former secretary of state. A line that says, finally, beyond all politics and partisanship and manipulation and fear: enough.
I don't mean to minimize the threat terrorist fanatics pose to your life and mine. But vital as it is that our lives be protected, there are things that matter more. Meaning the essential character of our nation.
Experts say torture is an unreliable tool for interrogation; it often produces false confessions. But even if that were not the case, even if we had to choose between saving Americans and preserving America, it should be an easy call.
Kill me before you kill my country.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for The Miami Herald. His column appears Sundays in The Sun.
phyrday for the Leonard Pitts article below that triggered these musings. Fear is a teacher. Fear can be a clear signal that something is wrong, something urgently needs to be attended to, changed or fixed. Fear can be a useful spur to take necessary action: fight, flight, or some more creative solution. Fear is so primal, so powerful, it can cut right through the endless deluge of trivial information and daily B.S. that we are bombarded with constantly. It gets our attention like almost nothing else will.
But constant fear is not a healthy condition under which to live. Over time, fear damages the psyche, degrades and poisons rational thought. And fear is not an excuse for wrong, immoral or unethical acts. Because while fear is an emotion, a biochemical, physiological and psychological response, there are reasonable, rational levels of fear. Even powerful emotions like fear need to have limits, have to be under some kind of control, and fear, even powerful fear, does not excuse all choices. Our legal system bases decisions on self-defence as a matter of whether there was a "reasonable fear" for one's own life. It is not okay, legally or ethically, for me to go out and kill someone merely because I am afraid of them, of what they might do, or what they could do. There must be a reasonable fear -- a fear that is based on some sort of rational judgement that stands up to scrutiny. But history shows that people who are living in constant, chronic fear, often make unreasonable decisions.
Fear -- constant, unceasing, endless cycles of fear -- of communists, immigrants, people of different religions, races or sexual orientations, athiests, anarchists, terrorists, of people somewhere, somehow having so much power over us that they threaten "our way of life," is what our government's leadership depends upon to keep us in line. Living in fear, we do not adequately question the choices and actions which our government makes. We follow the shallow, simple promises that we are given, that we will be "taken care of," like children, if only we trust, have faith, and do not look too closely. If we did really look, which we might do if we did not live in such constant fear, we might see that these fear-fueled actions taken in our name are not only, upon rational inspection, idiotic, wasteful, unwise, benefit only those in power, and morally bankrupt, they are also, in themselves, the real threat to "our way of life," to our freedom, and to our world.
It is not true that "all we have to fear is fear itself." What we have to fear is the deliberate and continual state of fear those who lead us wish to achieve. While our minds, hearts and souls are choking on the steady diet of fear they feed us, while we are paralyzed by fear, we will follow anyone who promises an end to that fear. But the actions they take not only fail to end the fear, they in fact guarantee a world ruled by fear, and thus by the worst, most shadow-filled, irrational, nightmare side of human nature.
Fear is not the enemy. Those who depend on fear as a tool to rule and control us are the enemy. The real terrorists are those who deliberately spread terror for their own selfish ends, and many of those terrorists are right here at home, in our own cities, sitting in our own centers of local, state and national government. And if that doesn't make you afraid -- a deep, powerful but reasonable fear, of a kind which inspires you to take clear, rational, and forceful action -- it should.
-------
Powell Belatedly Joins Bid to Save Our Nation's Soul
by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Colin L. Powell is late. Late by weeks, late by months. Truth to tell, late by years.
"The world," he wrote in a letter to Sen. John McCain this month, "is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism."
The eyes goggle at the word, neon-obvious in its understatement. Beginning to doubt? "Beginning"?
Au contraire. Surely the world began to doubt when we barreled unilaterally into Iraq, crying, "WMD! WMD!" Surely the world began to doubt when, finding no weapons of mass destruction, we declared that not finding them didn't matter. Surely the world began to doubt when it read headlines of our soldiers committing acts of torture at Abu Ghraib. Surely the world began to doubt when news broke of the U.S. sending alleged terrorists to countries where they could be tortured. Surely the world began to doubt when Vice President Dick Cheney lobbied to exempt the CIA from rules prohibiting torture. Surely the world has doubted for a long time now.
Mr. Powell's letter was meant as a show of support for a group of dissident GOP senators on the Armed Services Committee - Mr. McCain, John W. Warner, Lindsey Graham, Susan M. Collins - who joined Democrats in rebuffing a White House legislative attempt to reinterpret Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
The White House wanted to allow the use of torture in the interrogation of supposed terrorists. President Bush also wanted to be able to try alleged terrorists without allowing them to see the evidence against them - the very definition of a kangaroo court. (Under the agreement reached Thursday, the White House dropped its insistence on barring suspects from access to evidence.)
It's a mark of how far we have fallen since Sept. 11, 2001, that these things are even being discussed. So, belated as it is, Mr. Powell's evocation of morality also feels, paradoxically, like the timeliest of reminders for a nation that has so obviously forgotten who and what it is supposed to be.
Before 9/11, this country, whose moral authority much of the world is "beginning to doubt," inspired much of the world with that very moral authority. Imperfect and even hypocritical as we often were, we were in many ways the world's moral policeman, the nation that held other nations accountable on issues of human rights. We preached that gospel to Beijing, Moscow, Havana. Friends and enemies might have thought us a tad too idealistic, a bit too naive, a Boy Scout in the community of nations, but many of them admired us, too, for our decency, our square-jawed spirit of can-do, our faith in the power of right.
Then we got scared. And fear changed everything.
We are often told that terrorists threaten our "way of life." We hear this so often that it's jolting to realize it's not true.
Oh, they threaten our lives, certainly. Your life, mine. But our "way" of life? No.
Granted, that's a broad and vaguely defined term - but still, no. Whether you take it to mean things frivolous (baseball, MTV, fireworks on the Fourth) or things fundamental (freedom of speech, equality under the law, the native idealism of our national character), there is no way suicide bombers and fanatics with box cutters can destroy our way of life.
Unless we let them. Unless we, in fear, knuckle down and destroy it ourselves.
This, I think, was the line drawn by four GOP senators and the former secretary of state. A line that says, finally, beyond all politics and partisanship and manipulation and fear: enough.
I don't mean to minimize the threat terrorist fanatics pose to your life and mine. But vital as it is that our lives be protected, there are things that matter more. Meaning the essential character of our nation.
Experts say torture is an unreliable tool for interrogation; it often produces false confessions. But even if that were not the case, even if we had to choose between saving Americans and preserving America, it should be an easy call.
Kill me before you kill my country.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for The Miami Herald. His column appears Sundays in The Sun.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-25 08:38 pm (UTC)I feel a rant coming on. Seems like time for it.
Gavin de Becker's book, _The Gift of Fear_, talks about the important difference between the stab of adrenaline that gets you to dive for cover in the nick of time (good, useful fear) and the constant drip of adrenaline engendered by 'eek, eek' newscasts that makes you irritable and numb (the kind of fear we need to process and release).
He points out the necessity of always listening to the first kind, even for those of us who live in war zones, even if it has sometimes 'cried wolf' before. And the necessity of carefully dismantling the second kind, even when our leaders or mediavoices are telling us to be afraid, because constant fear actually hampers our ability to take ourselves to safety in time of emergency.
I'm sad that Powell is so late. I'm glad he's finally stepped up to speak up. I'm hoping that Congress will show some cojones. And I'm _not_ giving two hours a day of my attention to the news media.