I don't know if it's because I'm a mother or it's just a quirk of my personality, but there isn't anything that gets me as angry as seeing someone else abused. Whether it's a bureaucrat being arbitary, a law enforcement officer exceeding his authority, or a kid kicking his mother in the shins because she's not doing what he wants, I cannot resist interfering. For some reason, anger rises (maybe it's an adrenalin rush) and I cannot restrain myself. Which, I guess, is why this war on terror business is really starting to tick me off.
What if you had a kid who's really afraid of the dark. Whom would you blame? Well, there might be an older sibling or even an uncle or dad who've been telling him stories about frightful things that go bump in the night. And, if that's the case, you might tell the offenders to "just stop it," but the damage has already been done. Once the kid is terrorized, removing the prompt won't change his response to the dark.
Of course, another way to deal with this problem is to make sure that the kid never has to be in the dark. But, while this may work at home, it will have the effect of really inhibiting his ability to negotiate the real world. It just isn't possible to remain in the light all the time.
Now, I actually have a grandson who's afraid of the dark and drives me crazy because he can never "remember" to turn off the lights. But what's really interesting is his response to a dark space. Instead of entering cautiously and picking his way, he rushes for the spot where he expect to find a light, increasing his potential for stubbing his toe or toppling head over heals.
In other words, fear actually makes people behave recklessly, exposing them to dangers that they might not meet, if they hadn't been terrorized to begin with.
Which, I guess, is why I am doubly ticked off by this war on terror. Terror is an emotion which, having been generated, it very difficult to eradicate. However, given the proper support, it can be brought under control. Terror, like fear, can be overcome by the individual who experiences it; but not if the prompt is continually re-enforced.
And that, I would argue, is what the Bush administration is doing--re-enforcing the terror and, not coincidentally, making us all less safe and secure because the terror makes it increasingly difficult to know what we are about, stumbling in the dark.
Which is why I consider the war on terror to be abusive, meant to intimidate every single American citizen. Like an abusive sibling, it needs to be stopped. And until that can be accomplished, what we need to do is make it very clear that this manipulation needs to be resisted with every fiber of our being. That's the only way we can win.
The boogy man is not the problem. Though, of course, there are bad people out there. The real problem is the guy who would have us believe that being fearful will protect us.
Posted by Hannah at September 1, 2004 01:01 PM