When Do We?

Question

become less susceptible to messages of fear and paranoia and begin to gravitate to messages of hope?

We seem so adept at polarizing: labeling, and developing enemies. We oragnize so easily behind manufactured threats. We sacrifice so much to gain so little (e.g., does anyone think that there is a better use of 3 trillion dollars than the war in Iraq? How about health care or photoelectric cells on every home?).

What conditions must exist for us to be able to discriminate real dangers from simply a lack of tolerance to look within and acknowledge our own self-destructive tendencies. Whe do we start to build?

Answer 1

Fear psychosis.  Herd mentality.  "Sky is falling,  run for your life" & no one questions,  everyone is afraid,  too afraid to even ask.  When fear reigns supreme,  its darkness all over,  you cringe & grope, but shun the light.   Like old (India/Pakistan)  war days when we were required to blacken the window panes, not a sliver of light escaping.  People refusing to come out of trenches even after all-clear sirens go off.  It pays to play upon that fear,  keep them subdued,  that's the self-serving message.  Pure psychology!!!

It takes real character,  great courage,  to raise a dissenting voice.  That may or may not be heard or worse still gagged.  When fear--real or perceived--is created,  rationality is the first casuality.

P. S.  You can speak my dear friend <I>.  You are among  real good friends and we all love the sound of your voice (however colourful).  Its 'unconditional',  remember!  So I'm ok, I'm fine, with anything you say....(not suggesting you're afraid or something,  its discretion,  I know!!!)

Answer 2

You make a very good point.  I am often stunned by the messages of fear which are the prime focus of many political candidates.  It seems as though they are trying to get as many voters as possible to scramble for protection to gain votes.  I see this as a complete lack of ability on the candidates part - they are not good administrators and they have no idea how to provide positive leadership.  They are content to howl at the moon to show that they are on guard.  

Many of our leaders are playing both sides of the issues - they say they are for peace, but there is no limit to the amount they will spend for new arms.  Each time I hear about terrorist bombings in Pakistan or Israel I also have to question where the munitions and arms are coming from?  How many people are dying as a result of the steady stream of war materials being produced by American manufacturers?  And in the case of Iraq, we defeated a bloody tyrant and we are now spending billions of dollars to re-arm that country.   How is that helping in the long run?  

I am most concerned with our inability to work with other countries in the Middle East to create a lasting peace.  The first Gulf War ended in terrible failure and disappointment because American leaders had no idea what to do once the battle was won.  It has been a vicious cycle which seems never-ending.

Answer 3

We don't, its too late! I believe our chance has come and gone.

Answer 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDllharjO...

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Answer 5

Hope doesn't stop planes from crashing into buildings. I agree with balancing messages of hope and inspiration with those of  ones that are constructed to strike fear into the equation. I don't believe we are even close to residing in a world of peace where our main focus can be applied to  quality of life issues. Utopia won't be built in a day.

Answer 6

We hear what we expect to hear -- what our "inner map" of the world tells us the world is like.

Fear and paranoia come from believing that the world is evil and chaotic.  It is true that there is evil and chaos in the world, but that does not necessarily define the world.  It does not define MY world, I should point out.

I do wonder if the three trillion dollars spent on Iraq's war would have gone to health care or photoelectric cells in a different scenario.  That is not the way of our government or our world at this time.  However, those of vision can communicate, and can unite in an effort to change that government and that world.  Therein, I suppose, lies the hope you long for.

No helpful criticism is complete without a suggestion for amelioration.  I suggest that we start with school age children, and begin to instill in them a strong sense of self-worth.  

Self-love comes from self-evaluation and self-acceptance.  These things are not addressed, let alone encouraged, in the current school system.  Introducing such agendas into the regular curriculum would, ideally, produce young people with high self-esteem that feel they CAN make a difference.  A person is far more likely to work towards change if he or she believes it is possible.

Answer 7

The tools exist - risk analysis is pretty well established, but it isn't very flashy.  If people were rational, they'd be yelling their heads off at the number of traffic fatalities in any given year, and they'd be making much less noise about the "terrorism" threat to America.

Any loss of life, of course, is regrettable, but I believe with all my heart that there was a better course of action than invading Iraq.  

If we spent the money on developing alternatives to oil rather than on protecting foreign oil fields, we'd be better off.

By the way, speaking of risk analysis:  It is the tendency of humans to try to displace the risk while gaining some benefit from an action.  For example, risk displacement is  why bosses are rarely killed on the job, while workers are involved in industrial accidents - the majority of the risk is not being taken on by the same people who get the majority of the financial benefit.  

In the situation at hand, the risk was put PRIMARILY on the people of Iraq, not on the US.  In addition, the risk the US is taking on by way of cost in dollars is being displaced to the children and grandchildren who will inherit this debt.  Bush got  an extra 4  years in office selling fear.  The displaced risk here is that we'll have to spend the next decade sorting it out and repairing our relationships around the world.

I'm not dismissing the lives of the American's killed or injured in Iraq.  Again, it was a displaced risk.  The guys who got us into the war are not the people fighting it.