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Townhall
Can We Survive
a Feckless, Egotistic President Afraid to Lead?
by Bob Barr
Sep 10, 2014
Fear. It is a basic, primitive emotion common to every living species
on planet earth. It is the instinctual response that keeps animals
alive in nature, and influences the thoughts and actions of humans.
Edmund Burke once described the potency of fear saying, “No passion so
effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as
fear.” Burke’s observations ring especially true in today’s
hypersensitive, hyper-connected world of 24-hour news channels and
social media, in which the flames of fear can be fanned in ways only
dreamed of in ages past.
Our fear of illness feeds the hype about an Ebola virus “epidemic”
sweeping across America. International headlines appear anytime someone
vomits on a plane. Overlooked is the reality that Ebola thrives only in
areas with poor sanitation, nutrition, and healthcare access; and can
in fact be prevented and contained in societies like ours where proper
sanitation, nutrition and healthcare are the norm.
We fear mass shootings. Although such incidents are extremely rare, and
almost always perpetrated by an individual suffering from mental health
issues, schools now are mobilized to routinely practice “lock downs,”
and have implemented idiotic “zero tolerance” programs with
unthinkingly absurd results – such as suspending a child for making
hand gestures in the shape of a gun while playing at recess.
Our fear of airline crashes, stoked by the recent disasters involving
Malaysian Airlines planes, has recently led to three commercial
airliners landing prematurely because of arguments between passengers
over reclining seats.
Fear mongering unfortunately is a highly effective tool of government;
well-known to the current and previous administrations, which have used
Americans’ fear of terror attacks since 9/11 to dramatically and
dangerously increase government power in ways previously considered far
out of limits, both legally and morally.
For the rest of this article and more, go to Townhall
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