On the art of fear-mongering (and the usefulness thereof)

Imagine you have a four year old son who calls you into his room at 1AM. He's afraid because he's quite sure there's someone under his bed. He heard a noise and he's convinced it's someone out to get him. You know that just a few weeks ago one of his classmates' house was robbed. But rather than reassuring your son you look at him and say, "Oh yes there's probably somebody under the bed. There are scary people all over and they really want to hurt us."

Sick, huh?

Yet that's precisely the kind of fathering that George Bush did to the country after the Sept 11 attacks, a tragedy most people consider the biggest historical turning point in the last 100 years.

In essence he said - "Yes people you should be afraid. They are legion. They are everywhere. And they are out to get us." Then he presented us with information demonstrating to us that he was right. He alternated this with "We are strong, we are good and we will win" messages without going into too much detail about how that would happen or even what win means.

In his 2003 State of the Union address Mr Bush used this tactic beautifully. He spends twenty nine paragraphs talking about his four main goals: creating a stronger economy, reducing dependence on foreign oil, bringing affordable healthcare to every American and creating more compassionate volunteer initiatives across the country, particularly for people with addictions.

(Hey those are pretty good ideas George!! Too bad you lost focus there, huh?)

But then Bush spent 39 paragraphs going into incredible detail about the the lurking evil that just may get us any day now, alternating this with mentions of our patriotic omnipotence that will prevail.

Why would a man spend so much energy telling the little boy, "Yep there's a shitload of Indians under the bed dying to scalp you - you should be scared"?

I believe one of the best reasons to be using and abusing fearful messages when one happens to be standing at the national pulpit is because it paralyzes people. When we are afraid we pull in, we shut down and we don't know where to turn or who to run to.

It's also a great way to sell a solution-based idea. This is the technique used by the wonderful life insurance companies who offer us maudlin photos of widowers and their children all dressed in black. The baseline reads something like "What would they do without you?"

Well we know what Bush wanted to sell us. He wanted to sell us a war that had nothing to do with September 11th. The more he repeated "Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein" alongside the fearful messages, the more the paralyzed masses readied themselves for an invasion.

Why am I bringing up all of this now?

Because John McCain comes from the same school and uses the same tactics. When asked about the war in Iraq he said "If we leave Iraq, they are going to follow us home."

Quite frankly I'm tired of this kind of jabber. I'm tired of black and white thinking.

We never just saved the world for democracy. And we rarely have just altruistic reasons behind our foreign policies. We have taken down democratically elected officials who we didn't like and have supported others in taking power in very non-democratic ways. We have murdered people rather than sending them to trial, a notion we normally sort of like to defend as American.

"They" are not all evil and "we" are not all good.

Doesn't America deserve a leader who doesn't infantilize her citizens? Isn't it time we stopped electing people who keep pulling out the boogey-man as a manipulative oratorical tool and instead focus on simple comprehensible solutions to real problems and a clear explanation of how to pay for them?

When I lived in Europe we all knew very clearly that there were a certain number of things that changed when a terrorist alert was high. Overnight all of the public wastebaskets were sealed shut. Packages over a certain weight had to be taken into the post office and scanned. Sensitive buildings were suddenly surrounded by national police.

Why didn't this happen in America? Besides the domestic airlines beefing up security, nothing much has changed in my life. (Oh yes, there is the way it has affected my jokes in Texas: at the Bush International Airport a mechanical voice reminds you every ten minutes or so that even your jokes may be taken as threats.)

And of course in the last few days Mr McCain is now closing the loop. Not only is the scarey boogey man of undefined terror just waiting to get us but members of his team are now more or less subtly frightening folks by insisting that Obama is a "they" (Muslim, terrorist, wonk) and not an "us" (Christian, patriot, willing to save the world for democracy).

"Yep - you better cry little boy - there are evil boogey men just under your bed and they are waiting for the opportunity to slit your throat. But you can trust me...."