Being Afraid

WHEN ALBERT EINSTEIN was a teenager, Germany was a newly formed country, proud, full of itself, an embryonic empire on the verge of exploding into European prominence, proudly nationalistic and highly militaristic culturally. In later life, living in America after World War Two, Dr. Einstein reflected back on how his upbringing in Bavaria instilled in him a loathing of all things military. He recalled the near daily military parades in 1890s Munich, and how it impacted him, such that the very sight of men in uniform, rank and file inspired him to question the intelligence of those participating. In America, we've had our own cyclical love affairs with ourselves, our country, and our military. We are having one now. The nightmare of September 11, 2001 propelled America into a hyper patriotic mindset, from which we have yet to emerge. We continually remind ourselves that those who served in our military are heroes, on a par with police officers. Our flag waving and national anthem singing have reached epic proportions. The very moment we meet someone who once served in the military we obsequiously offer our deepest gratitude and sincerest thanks. We have fallen in love with our armed forces, which are always prepared for was, and have been since the second world war, partly because we live with a chronic, pervasive fear of attack, both from within, and from the outside. We jump at our own shadows. Although terrorists= attacks are less common than lightening strikes, we behave as if an attack is imminent. Increasingly, our most mundane daily actions are caught on camera. We live in a virtual surveillance, police state. The advertising on this website, and everywhere else, is targeted directly towards you, because our corporate masters have enough information about all of us to do so. They know all about us, and they know how to use the information. Their corporate tools of implementation, our elected politicians, are cosen for us by corporate money; our votes for them are mere rubberstamps. The only thing we have to fear is feat itself. WE have a lot to fear.