The Nose of Terror

[ourwinter]

Greetings all,

I'm quite new to this community. I'm the author of the War on Odor & The War on Terror, Alexis Santi. I'm hoping to gather all your feedback in my efforts to turn the article into a series of pieces.
For example, I'd like to expand this "mental war on terror" and call that 1 article, analyze what Bush has done, etc.

Let me know what you think, all feedback is greatly appreciated.

[kalian]

1. Was your article written with a sarcastic overtone?

I really didn't quite comprehend what you wanted to achieve.

From what I gathered from the article, you are assuming that the
so-called "terror" that is being enacted is actualy real and being
perpetrated by the "radical muslim fundamentalists". You are parting
from the notion that what the government has told us on 9/11, and
still maintains, that an onscure individual, i.e., "Osama Bin Laden"
was the mastermind of the so-called "attack".

See, if you discard the conventional "wisdom" and what has been
beaten into our collective psyche over the past 2 years plus...the
whole things turns into something much more sinister.

Your article talks about how Americans should deal with "fear". but
in particular "fear of terrorism". You tie them hand in hand. IMHO,
this is wrong and you're relating fear to the wrong enemy or the
wrong cause. I think we should be much more concerned about fear our
government more than so-called "terrorism".

Terrorism's job is to bring about change through violent means. In
the case of 9/11, change did occur but look WHO brought about those
changes. Look who has curtailed civil rights...look who has INVADED
two sovereign nations...look WHO is occupying foreign lands and
treating their citizens like criminals. Need I go on?

My point is: we need to examine ourselves in a mirror and ask what
we are doing wrong. We have to ask whether or not we have the
courage to change ourselves, our ways of thinking and our
so-called "leadership". Yes, we do have to face our FEARS...are
we ready...?

[ourwinter]

3. Well

That is in a sense part of my point that I'd like to develop that the war on terror/odor in future articles. If we analyze the war on terror the actual things that have been done have actually created more ignorance and more fear.

So, examples -- what is the point of a color warning system? Does it make sense to publically go and fight wars? Why are we trying to kill flys with a baseball bat? Why are we curtailing civil liberties, all the things that you mention.

[kalian]

4. The point...?

To transform Americans (not a very difficult task really...) into
hate mongering, killing machines. To feel no pity and to do what
their "fearless" leader tells them is in their best interest.

We are militarizing our nation...we will live under a "perpetual"
war.
For what purpose: to control the remaining oil reserves so that
"our great nation" will survive. Our way of "life"...

Remember citizen, they hate us because of our "freedoms".

[ourwinter]

7. I think we're agreeing

right?

[jbfam4]

2. Welcome, Alexis

I am sure you will be a big asset to this forum and will get plenty of feed back too.

I have been waiting for someone to write the maunchausen (?)
syndrom version of this war. Maybe you are the one.

[ourwinter]

11. Will try to keep this in mind - there's an angle here

Thank you for your welcome, I found the following and will try to encorporate this.


I am a psychiatrist and author from Birmingham, Alabama. MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME is the most severe and chronic form of my area of specialty, the FACTITIOUS DISORDERS. I am an expert in MALINGERING as well (in which people do the same thing, but for external gain such as narcotics). Factitious disorders are well-recognized among psychiatrists, but they have not received the attention--or advocacy among consumers, families, and professionals--that have greeted more common ailments such as depression. However, factitious disorders can be every bit as disabling and further public and professional education are vital.

People with factitious disorders feign, exaggerate, or actually self-induce illnesses. Their aim? To assume the status of "patient," and thereby to win attention, nurturance, and lenience that they feel unable to obtain in any other way. Unlike individuals who "malinger," people with factitious disorders are not primarily seeking external gains such as disability payments or narcotic drugs--though they may receive them nonetheless.

* In "MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME BY PROXY" (MSBP), an individual makes another person sick in order to accrue the same gains--but this time vicariously. This is a form of abuse in which children are the usual victims.
from:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Marc_Feldman_2/

[54anickel]

5. Hi our winter, welcome to DU.

I am not sure who your intended audience for this piece is, that makes it hard to provide feedback.

If you are trying to alleviate fear, using the Israelis continuing to live their day to day lives "not knowing whether their bus is next" is probably not the best way to do it for the general population.

Fear is paralyzing, yet many times illogical for most people. It is most often used by bullies to get their way or their jollies. Think of when you were a kid and afraid of the boogie man under your bed. Where did that idea come from? A bully older brother, buddy? Did your parents keep telling you "he's gonna get you"? Probably not unless they were sadistic. Yet that is just what the administration continues to do. How many times do they scream terrorist, terror, war on terror?

While 9/11 was a tragic event, it's not like there is a terrorist on every street corner waiting to get you. What are your chances being killed by an act of terror vs a traffic accident, the flu, anything else that is a more ordinary part of life.

Sure, the possibility is there, along with numerous other more common threats to loose your life. It may be better to point how our natural instinct of fear can be abused against us rather than trying cut it off.

The natural response to fear is fight or flight, just prior to making that decision is the paralyzing effect of indecision and that is what this administration is using against us. For some it is the fear of terrorist attacks, for others it is the fear of a monetary collapse, others it is fear of the unknown, the possibility of martial law and our lose of freedoms and rights. They have fed each and everyone of these fears almost daily. The put fear into our representatives for crying out loud.

As long as they keep flinging this stuff out there, we are like a deer caught in the headlights, deciding fight or flight. It is that moment of paralysis where our true enemies from within make their moves.

[ourwinter]

8. Agreed

54anickel,
Thank you for your comments, my intended audience is everyone.

I agree with you it is either fight or flight, granted.

But I would argue we are fighting blindly without the real knowledge to get anywhere. We are paranoid, lost in udder shear ignorance regarding the muslim population residing in America and still 2 years after 9/11 want to scapegoat their population. We still do not have enough arabic speakers as translators -- the list goes on and on and on -- ignorance, blanket, bullheaded ignorance is allowing soldiers to die abroad, why isn't anyone screaming "GIVE THEM LANGUAGE TRAINING" or "TEAM THEM UP WITH THE IRAQI ARMY" these to me are real factors in the war on terror we refuse to embrace. IT would be like saying, okay -- we're going to storm the beaches of Normandy, but heck -- we don't need anyone that speaks "frogtalk, or german talk" that's what we're doing and our human itelligence is sadly pathetic.

I know your comments are mostly directed towards the mental aspect, of my piece, that we as Americans are going to have to live with the fact that our world is NOT a glass world where we will always be proteceted. Terrorists have been taking pot shots at Americans for years -- years! But the Bush administration and the reacationary popmedia has turned terror into the new kid on the block.

Then you have the "pulpit general" who is charged with hunting down Osama -- yet, belives Islam is a false religion. GREAT - that makes sense on the war on terror where we need to gather as much human intelligence as possible. Then we have a president that was ordained by GOD to fight this war (has anyone done any research on this aspect, vis-a-vis how this plays to muslims abroad because I think it fell on semi-deaf ears over here.)

sorry 54anickel all these comments were not directed towards you, I just started going...

[54anickel]

9. "I just started going..."

I can tell by your reply that there is much passion in your heart for this project and you take on a difficult task. Your article seems to ramble as does your reply as you have so much pent up inside and it all comes out onto the page, but your thoughts tend to get ahead of the reader.

If your audience is meant to be everyone then you need to slow it down a bit. In some ways, you tend to support the administrations definition of terror rather than attempt to slowly dismantle it. Perhaps I still am not understanding your intent of the piece.

In this paragraph toward the end:
If we are to assume that the immediate future of American Foreign Policy will be centered on the Middle East, and Global politics then we have much to do. American diplomatic, military, civic corps, and the American public will be forced as a new generation of multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, politically savvy citizenry. Their mentors will be their neighbors, the grocer, the cab driver, the professor long shunned by his home country - their new country is calling on them to provide a service to their country, educate and build America's best and brightest.

You have gone way over the head of Joe Schmoe. Folks here at DU will catch your drift, but folks too busy living their day to day lives trying to make ends meet will find this way to difficult to understand and too time consuming to try. Sounds like too much work! The sections of your piece should try to get the reader to the point of being able to understand what that paragraph says to them, from their perspective of day to day living.

If you are trying to convince your audience, you should attempt to answer the readers questions "what's in if for me" "how does this effect me". We live in a very self-centered all about me culture these days.

Wish you the best in your work.

[ourwinter]

10. "how does this affect me"

I will make sure to keep your thoughts in mind in the future. I appreciate your feedback, it was quite constructive.

Yours,
Alexis

[bemildred]

6. You undertake a difficult project.

The easiest way to deal with the war on terror mentally is
simply to realize it is bullshit. The actual damage done
is like a gnat biting an elephant, and the actual threat to
ordinary persons is very much smaller that many risks, like
driving, that are dealt with as routine.

It is not being made into a big deal because it is a big deal
half so much as because it serves the political ends of the
ruling class, or at least so they think.

The problem with your education project is that it would result
in the removal from power of the current ruling class in the
USA. It is no accident that our education system is in decline.

---

The writing could use work, but you know that, and it's
still a creditable effort.

The one piece of real advice I have to offer is this: it rambles
too much. When dealing with intellectual content of this order,
clarity is everything.

Good Luck with your project.

[ourwinter]

12. Thanks for the feedback

Will continue working on the piece, and the pieces to follow.

I don't expect to get published in the NYTimes or anything, and am not a "pro" by any means. This is simply what I do in my free time, and glad at the least that it attracted feedback.

Your education points are also salient, and ones which deeply trouble me about this country. With an exploding debt, and school system in shambles the future of this country is not secure if we are to be "a global leader."

Thank you bemildred -

[bemildred]

13. My pleasure.

Please keep posting your work.

[BeFree]

14. My impression

Remember that 'Silence of the Lambs' part where Jodi is in the room with the lights out?

That's how I see most of America today. We can't see shit and we know we are in danger.

My impression over the years is that people have known things were congealing into a form where "life as we know it" would drastically change. People don't cotton well, however, to change.

A lynch mob mentality requires easy targets. Muslims are the easy targets for this particular lynch mob. Nevermind that the vast majority of Muslims are peacekeeping people. They have been made into the easy targets by our leaders.

When it comes down to it, it is our present day leaders who are to blame for our fears. Instead of the old "The Only Thing We Have To Fear is Fear Itself" we have color coded threats.

BTW: How did Jodi ever get out alive?

[ourwinter]

15. BTW: How did Jodi ever get out alive?

She sure did but then was replaced by a look alike for the sequel.
Will we?

I contemplated putting the "fear itself" quote into the article but couldn't bare it. I too disgusted by the current rhetoric that comes out of the administration -- they embrace fear and use it to its fullest. Their quote is more like "be afraid, be very afraid" or "Fear This!" interchangably.

Thanks for your comments and we shall continue - BeFree.

Alexis Santi

[ourwinter]

16. Any further comments?

Angles, directions, constructive feedback you'd like to provide?

Alexis Santi