Damn! Is it me? Or are you actually posting cognizant, rational thought provoking articles today?
On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 8:14 AM, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > "I know, for example, that I am more likely to be killed by my > furniture<http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/americans-are-as-likely-to-be-killed-by-their-own-furniture-as-by-terrorism/258156/>than > by a terrorist. Yet I don’t sit at home eyeing my dressers and > appliances warily, waiting for them to make their move. I understand that > my chances of being killed by a terrorist are approximately one in 20 > million, while my chances of being struck by > lightning<http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/06/how-scared-of-terrorism-should>are > one in 5,500,000. Yet I don’t clamor for a War on Lightning to combat > this deadly threat. And I am eight > times<http://www.theweeklyconstitutional.com/news/headlines/773-cop-more-likely-to-kill-you-than-terrorists>more > likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist. I know > all of this. So why was I swept up in the fear of terrorism on that flight?" > > *Fear and Flying, Then and Now > *by Bretigne Shaffer > > In 1988, I fled college without having graduated, saved a little bit of > money and got on an airplane for Taiwan. Martial law had just been lifted > and back then, to enter on a tourist visa, you had to show a return-trip > ticket. So that's what I bought, even though I had no intention of > returning to the US after my three-month-one-time-renewable stint was up. > My plan was to sell my ticket to someone else and use the money to buy a > ticket to wherever I was going next. So I put an ad in a local > English-language paper and a young American guy responded to it. He paid me > half the money up front, with a promise to pay the balance after I went to > the airport with him and checked in – since the ticket was of course still > in my name. > > On the day of his flight, the American guy and I took the bus out to > Chiang Kai Shek International Airport. I took the ticket up to the airline > counter, checked myself in, and then handed him the ticket and he handed me > the rest of the money. We were both familiar with airport procedures back > then: Once you had checked in, you would not ever have to show > identification again. There were no long security lines, no invasive > pat-downs, no full-body scanners. You walked through a metal detector and > then on to your gate. He took the ticket, we said goodbye and I never heard > from him again, so assume that he made it all the way to Los Angeles. > > Imagine trying to do this in today’s world. Imagine what would happen to > the hapless souls who even attempted to pull off this kind of mutually > beneficial exchange that harmed no-one else. Very likely, they would both > find themselves accused of plotting a massive terrorist attack and be > thrown into a military prison, detained indefinitely, perhaps never to be > released. > > By today’s reasoning, the airports should have been on full alert back > then. 1988 had been one of the worst years in terms of international > terrorist attacks since 1972. With 456 incidents, the year had the highest > number of terrorist attacks since 1985, and was within a cluster of the > worst five years to date at that time. > > [image: []] > (Source: SystemicPeace.org <http://www.systemicpeace.org/conflict.htm> , > drawing on data provided by the RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism > Incidents ( > RDWTI<http://www.rand.org/nsrd/projects/terrorism-incidents.html%29> > )) > > In fact, the number of international terrorism incidents began to decline > soon after that period – all without the aid of "heightened security" or > the official harassment of airline passengers. It began to rise again > beginning in 2001, and there is no reason to think that all of these > heightened security measures have had any impact at all in preventing acts > of terrorism since then. What they have done however, beyond the obvious > violations of our right to privacy, to travel, and not to be molested by > strangers wearing badges, is to help change our culture for the worse. > > I remember when flying used to be fun. I remember the feeling of > excitement as I headed to the airport, boarded my plane and lifted off for > new adventures in unknown lands – or even known ones. For the past few > years, I’ve just avoided flying entirely, but I recently took to the skies > again, and can attest to the complete lack of fun and excitement there is > to be found in being herded about like cattle and being barked at by TSA > agents – many of whom, the signs in the security line proudly inform me, > have previously served in the military. > > None of this surprised me. What did surprise me though, was something that > happened on the plane on one of these trips. I was traveling with my family > – my husband and son a few rows back, my daughter and I sitting together. > Across from us were two empty seats and after the seatbelt sign was turned > off, a well-dressed gentleman from the row in front of us moved from his > seat into one of the unoccupied ones. He was not an American, but I wasn’t > sure what part of the world he was from. He had earbuds in his ears and was > listening to music. After a short while, he began singing along to the > music. Loudly. In a foreign language. The lady in front of me looked over > at him with a concerned frown. Fifteen years ago, I would have just dug > into my purse for my earplugs and written him off as an irritating fellow > passenger. But on this trip I kept my eye on him to make sure he wasn’t > going to set his shoes on fire. I uncapped my pen in case I needed to kill > him with it. > > After a while, and after seeing him engage in friendly banter with the > flight attendants, I decided I wasn’t going to have to kill him with my pen > and I put the lid back on. Of course he was just an irritating fellow > passenger. But for a moment there, I had been caught up in the frenzied > fear that has come to define American culture. I was just as wary of the > "crazy foreigner" sitting nearby as anyone else would be. But I shouldn’t > have been. I know better. > > I know, for example, that I am more likely to be killed by my > furniture<http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/americans-are-as-likely-to-be-killed-by-their-own-furniture-as-by-terrorism/258156/>than > by a terrorist. Yet I don’t sit at home eyeing my dressers and > appliances warily, waiting for them to make their move. I understand that > my chances of being killed by a terrorist are approximately one in 20 > million, while my chances of being struck by > lightning<http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/06/how-scared-of-terrorism-should>are > one in 5,500,000. Yet I don’t clamor for a War on Lightning to combat > this deadly threat. And I am eight > times<http://www.theweeklyconstitutional.com/news/headlines/773-cop-more-likely-to-kill-you-than-terrorists>more > likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist. I know > all of this. So why was I swept up in the fear of terrorism on that flight? > > I can think of lots of reasons: I am a mom and I had my little girl next > to me and wasn’t going to take any chances; I hadn’t flown in a while, > don’t get out much, and had forgotten how just plain weird people could be; > acts of terrorism actually do happen, and I wouldn’t want to be unprepared > in case this was that one in 20 million event. But here’s what I think it > really is: I live in a culture in which fear is both an important commodity > and a critical tool of manipulation. Various interests – government and the > media mostly – combine forces to peddle fear, to magnify it, and to tell us > *what* to fear. Whether we agree with it or not, we hear that message and > it remains implanted in our psyches. > > We are told that a man has tried to blow up a plane by setting his shoe on > fire, it’s all over the news for weeks, everyone talks about it. Even those > of us who don’t watch television can’t help hearing about it. And the next > time we get on an airplane and see a person acting a little odd, we can’t > help thinking about that guy setting his shoes on fire. *Even those of us > who should know better* can’t help thinking about him. To some extent, > most of us can’t help buying into the fear. > > What we can do though is to not let that fear do our thinking for us. We > can decide not to buy into the conclusions the purveyors of fear would like > us to accept, and not forget that they remain – as a simple statistical > fact – the greater threat to our security than are any terrorists. > > When I was waiting to board my United Airlines flight a few weeks ago, a > staff member announced over the loudspeaker that "those requiring special > assistance, those traveling with small children and those currently serving > in our military" would be allowed to pre-board. I hope I wasn’t the only > one there to notice the irony in our having just passed through a massive, > invasive and inept security apparatus ostensibly for the purpose of > protecting us from terrorism – and then having the airline honor the very > institution that has brought terrorism to our shores by its own acts of > aggression overseas. > > I don’t like to think that I can be manipulated by the fear mongers. But > the truth is, when someone plants an idea or an image in one’s psyche, it > is hard not to let that idea or image impact one’s thinking or even how one > sees the world. Fear is a tremendously powerful tool for controlling > people. Those who would control other people have known this for centuries. > But it is only powerful to the extent that it gets us to abdicate our own > powers of reason. We can remain viscerally fearful of terrorism – even > irrationally so – and yet not accept the reasoning put forth by the fear > mongers, nor the "solutions" that are their true aim. > > We can remind ourselves of the statistics. We can remind ourselves that > those in power want us afraid so that they can strengthen their control > over us. And we can also remember that this pervasive fear is not a natural > way of being, that it is not how all cultures are, that it hasn’t always > been this way. We can remember that flying was once fun, that making it > less fun has not made it any safer and that one day it can be fun again. > > http://lewrockwell.com/shaffer-br/shaffer-br14.1.html > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "PoliticalForum" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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