Comments on: The Politics of Fear https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/ Thoughts on Politics and Life Tue, 24 Jan 2017 17:22:21 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.32 By: Ken Grandlund https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1027 Tue, 03 Jan 2006 08:09:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1027 (responses)

Jolly- yes, pretty simple. They are making his favorite flavor of Kool-Aid again.

Bob- Welcome! I share your sense of alarm and am often confounded at the lack of clarity that is replaced by greed and a sense of superiority/entitlement. So many of our troubles are planted in our own lack of interest in anyone but ourselves that we fail to see when we lose our own freedoms simply because we’ve forgotten what they mean.

Hope to hear from you again!

withinreason-thanks for the generous compliment. I just try to say what makes sense. your comments are always welcome here.

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By: Floyd https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1026 Tue, 03 Jan 2006 03:54:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1026 ken I am so happy to read one of such intelligent understanding,and
I also believe that God would not want us to wage war or to live our lives in fear. But fear has been used and I am glad you have brought it into the light,we can’t always live our lives in fear or play policeman to the world or force beliefs on other nations,and as you have pointed out concerning
our history as view points and knowing it took us about 230 years to get to the point we’re at now.
it is ironic that the Iraqis voted
against everyone who we supported in that election,hey I could go on and on but with this I will say; Keep on blogging,I’ll keep on reading.

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By: Bob P https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1025 Fri, 30 Dec 2005 08:56:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1025 Ken,

I’m a newcomer to your site, and just wanted to say that I share your overall view that we have changed from a nation of hopes and dreams to one manipulated by an exaggerated, over-hyped cloud of fear. That “fear factor” is a card that’s been played time and time again by the Bush Administration to distract us from the gradual disappearance of our once forward-thinking society. It threatens to turn neighbor against neighbor, provides the basis for the militarization of American culture, and conditions a gullible public to accept the idea of a world perpetually at war.

For four long years, the government and cooperative media loyalists have shamefully exploited our collective sense of shock over 9/11 to relentlessly execute the PNAC vision for this century. Let’s face it – although, as you point out, there are definite domestic vulnerabilities to terrorist attack which must be addressed, we all have a greater chance of being killed or injured in a car accident on any given day than as the result of an act of Islamic terrorism. And I don’t say this lightly. I watched two friends perish in the Twin Towers that September morning, and my knee-jerk lust for revenge helped to enable Mr. Bush’s pursuit of war, and the atmosphere of fear that followed.

But my initial fear of dangers from abroad has come to be replaced by a fear of three more years under the reign of this Administration. A fear of further divisiveness and bitterness across the nation. A fear of the continuing loss of civil and Constitutional rights. A fear (when I look at polls saying that 41% of our citizens still believe that Saddam had ties to al Qaeda) that this is no longer my America.

Thanks for a great post. I’m working to channel those fears into activism, communication, charity – and, yes, hope for a better tomorrow. Keep fighting the good fight.

Bob P
http://www.thehueandcry.com

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By: JollyRoger https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1024 Wed, 28 Dec 2005 06:53:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1024 harvey displays precisely the fear that you warn against.

He chooses to ignore the rampant corruption and the extra-legal, Liberty-stripping ways of his leadership and instead focuses on an “agressive” stance on terrorism, a point he cannot prove with any available data. Unless he considers all dissenters “terrorists.”

Why would he ignore what the leadership is doing, as supposedly all “conservatives” believe in integrity, Liberty, and smaller Government?

The answer is a simple one, isn’t it?

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By: Ken Grandlund https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1023 Tue, 27 Dec 2005 18:14:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1023 (response)

Harvey- Fear is a primitive instinct that we share with all animals. Hope is uniquely human.

Fear causes you to react, and not always rationally. Hope encourages you to create.

Agressively defending ourselves does not have to be based on fear. Hope is not just “pie-in-the-sky.”

Without hope, we’d still be stuck in the middle ages. It is hope that spawned America. Fear is not a motivator for progress, only a harbinger of repression.

Happy new year and thanks for the comments.

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By: harveyg https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1022 Tue, 27 Dec 2005 07:34:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1022 Ken,

I would tend to agree with prying1 on this post — this sort of purely partisan attack is beneath Common Sense.

Your take on fear vs. hope mystifies me. You portray an aggressive stance against terrorism as “fear” and talk about hope as if hope as if it can resolve any problems. Hope is just like the religion you berate — it’s pie-in-the-sky, head in the sand stuff. Fear motivates and motivation is the only path to survival.

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By: Ken Grandlund https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1021 Tue, 27 Dec 2005 07:07:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1021 (responses)

xianfu- thanks for dropping by. and I do tend to write logner posts. but many feel they are worth the read. I sure do.

windspike- thanks, as always, for the extra exposure. And yes, fear is the real enemy, as FDR implied. Too bad we seem to have forgotten that these days.

Me4- Agree with you all the way. Thanks for dropping in.

Shea- And alive and well in America today. Glad to hear from you.

Monika- I don’t mean to paint all Christians with the same brush intentionally, just those who like to scream loudest like the Robertsons, Dobsons, and Falwells…these are the folks who would like to see themselves proved righteous and true with the stories in revelation coming to light. And while I shouldn’t over generalize, it is YOUR religion that is being hijacked by these guys. I have no problem with people practicing their religion until it sets this country on a path towards destruction. Many of the guys calling the shots are part of the PNAC and claim to be of the “religious right.” Yet they certainly aren’t acting much like followers of Christ.

Prying1- Sorry, I don’t read Moore or the DNC handbook- never have for that matter.

As for the remarks about Christianity, please see my response to Monika above.

As you’ve enjoyed previous posts here from time to time, scratch this up to one we don’t see eye to eye on. I read your post on this essay at your blog, but saw that I was defended by other commenters there, so won’t extend the conversation much more at this late date.

Thanks as always for the comments though.

James- Thanks for the comments. I checked out your blogs, but don’t have a discover card and am not building a house. Hope all goes well for you though!

Blue Turtle- Fear is the tool of the cynical and the power hungry. But you are right…we each fear different things. Too bad we don’t all fear the loss of freedom and democracy as long as we have our cheap Wal-mart crap.

Thanks for dropping by.

Jolly- I don’t even bother with replying to some people, and TLA is one of them.

As for your comments about this post, I thank you for a nice addition. Comments like yours are what actually contribute to a rational dialogue.

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By: JollyRoger https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1020 Fri, 23 Dec 2005 21:05:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1020 First of all, I’d like to compliment “Dick’s List”for being one of the stupidest blogs in the blogosphere, and that is saying something. We all had a small taste of this stupidity with the “Administrator’s” little piece of childlike drivel. Let us all hope that science comes up with something that might even help people like him someday, although I doubt we’ll ever progress to that point.

Now, to address your topic. This is a topic I have thought long about, and I have come to some conclusions that are probably correct in most cases, although there are probably exceptions.

The people who do the toughest talking are the biggest cowards of the lot. These are people who would piss themselves if they saw a strange looking man walking up the sidewalk of their cul-de-sac at night, but do not hesitate to allow someone else do their fighting for them, and in fact would like to see the fighting expanded.

They also happen to be incredibly selfish people-they want their wars, and they want their police and fire protection, and they want their potholes fixed, and they want their great schools, but they do not want to be asked to contribuite anything themselves-not service, not money, not anything but hot air and a yellow car magnet.

These are the Shrubberals-liberal with your blood and your money, but damned “conservative” when it comes to doing anything for anyone but themselves.

The fearmongering that Rove has perfected touches the very soul of the Shrubberal.

The Shrubberal lies awake at night, worrying about the day that “they” will move into his neighborhood, with their different looks, and different worship practices, and their cars not late-model Denalis. “They,” of course covers a lot of ground, and Rove knows how to exploit that fear-when he saw that threatening the Shrubberals with Osama wasn’t going to be enough to get his trained monkey past the post again, he invoked something that is even more frightening to the Shruberral-the gay couple.

El Shrubbo has the Shrubberals convinced that it’s OK to not want to pay for anything, that we can endlessly spill blood without ever having to draft anyone, that he, and only he, understands what they are afraid of-and that he alone can keep the tax man, the draft board, and the gay couple away from them. And they blindly follow along, ignoring both history and present trends.

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By: Blue Turtle https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1019 Fri, 23 Dec 2005 11:29:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1019 … maybe taking responsibility.

I pretty much disagree with your opening paragraphs. I believe fear has always been the motivator. Think of the underlying conflict of the Civil War. A real fear of losing the type of life and lifestyle dependent on slavery. Individually, we are all responsible. What if half the country woke up tmrw and stopped using that which is dependent on oil?

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By: James https://commonsenseworld.com/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1018 Fri, 23 Dec 2005 10:11:00 +0000 http://annafiltest.wordpress.com/2005/12/21/the-politics-of-fear/#comment-1018 Hi,

This is just a calling card to say I’ve read your blog (or at least a little) via BlogExlposion. I hate the fact that you can win credits to view peoples sites, and people just click right through it.

I especially liked the blog about your father’s heart valves… (And I’m afraid I’m not American, so, to save myself from listening to patriotic stories, I’ve skipped yours… But you are a good writer in my opinion).

Thanks for the read,
James

buildingahouse.blogspot.com
discoverycard.blogspot.com

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