Fear plagues American life

A man from Trinidad stopped me in the laundromat. We chatted for a few moments about reggae, dreadlocks and marijuana.

Then he hit me with it.

"Only one other person has spoken with me today," he said. "Americans are so scared. They hide in themselves and don't care."

This coming from a man who spent the last 12 years traveling the world. I could do nothing but agree.

But it isn't our inherent personality. Genetically, U.S. residents don't resemble trembling chihuahuas - legs twitching, eyes dashing left to right, bottom leaking each time a door slams shut.

Situations behaviorally trained us to react this way.

Since the World Trade Center attack seven plus years ago, fear permeates American culture. This emotion allowed us to excuse attacking foreign countries.

The overhanging rainbow which dictates our daily life - how quickly the airport security check goes, which country we most distrust hour to hour, how many beers we drink while watching the evening news - disappears and reappears, following the toxic downpour of media attention as it floats across the country.

The Homeland Security Web site states the current threat level to be "elevated," or yellow. But for all flights, it's "high," a.k.a. orange.

A country's zeitgeist is its popular perception of life, or the spirit of the times. America's zeitgeist now appears as a multicolored poltergeist, hiding behind cars and phone calls, occasionally scampering to cling to the skirts of the Middle East.

This continuous fear created an ideal environment for the presidential elections. Generally speaking, people thrive on emotional appeals - in advertising, in politics, in daily life.

A parent does not get their child a whining, peeing, running bundle of shedding fur for practical reasons.

Emotional appeals lean on either enthusiasm or fear. "The Journal of Advertising" in 1995 suggested the "type of appeal should match the type of product."

Democratic candidate Barack Obama propagated the type that did not yet saturate his potential constituents: enthusiasm.

Thus, Obama's newly obtained title of president-elect.

Obama's political campaign focused on positive elements.

One Obama-friendly bumper sticker states simply, "¡Obamanos!" playing on the Spanish word, "vamanos," or "let's go." Obama's campaign fixated on forward progression and change.

After the last seven years, nothing could sound more thrilling than that.

American citizens distrust their emotions now. A perpetual barrage of terror will do that to a person. Driving down the road, a billboard asks, "Do you know where your children are?"

Listening to the radio at work, a booming voice announces, "Corporate giants Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed today." Winding down in front of the TV, a woman in heavy make-up suggests, "Buy this brand of soap! You don't want to get the flu, do you?"

Emotions betrayed rationality. We know not to trust traitors. They killed themselves the day they told us attacking a governed country would bring a single man into custody.

The U.S. replaced the government of Iraq with a democracy. Fine. My rational mind still doesn't see Osama bin Laden behind bars. Al Qaeda still attacks daily.

My rational mind is pained.

Obama brought emotion back out of the closet. He fed rationality a hot serving of practical encouragement, calmed its rage with future plans and reintroduced it to its old friend. Emotion warily emerged, battle-scarred and leery of politicians.

This politician has gained American support and trust.

We can only hope he deserves it.

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out