America's Choices: Courage or Cowardice? Fear or Phobia?

[TahitiNut]

Fear and loathing! Fear and loathing! What can we do?
The Busholini Regime is composed of cowards and bullies. They appeal to cowards and bullies.

Let's review. Superman was not courageous. When you're invulnerable, you can't be courageous. Courage is about doing the right thing at the perceived risk of great personal harm - loss of life, loss of employment, loss of limb. Don Quixote was courageous. He believed he was risking his life.

Chimpy McCokespoon is a coward. He ignored the "women and children first" and ran to the head of the line, using the power of cronyism, to get into the Air National Guard - not because it was the "right thing" (he 'supported' the War in Vietnam, as long as others sacrificed, not him) but because he was and is a slave to his own fears. He then ran from the Air National Guard, not because it was the "right thing" but because he was afraid to fly and afraid to face the penalties of his drug abuse. He runs from the presstitutes and then throws stones at them from behind cover and concealment. He runs from dissent, using the power of others to protect him. He hid behind children on 9/11 and then ran for cover in Nebraska. He's a coward wearing a 'superpower' suit. Instead of fighting fear, he spreads it. He pisses on 'Valor' and wallows in 'Vanity.'

When it's said that America "changed on 9/11" it can only be in reference to the cowards in our midst who became aware of our vulnerability - a chink in our 'superman' suit. Instead of responding with courage and doing the "right thing" - we hid in a mob 'led' by the biggest bully on the global playground. We looked for and scapegoated the weaklings on that global playground. We proclaimed ourselves free of the rule of law, both our own and internationally. Every "right thing" (international treaties and conventions as well as the ICC) was voided in favor of bullying and loathing.

We're not the "home of the brave" - we're mostly cowards afraid of sacrificing the smallest of comforts and afraid of people from different cultures. Xenophobia is about fear and loathing. Homophobia is about fear and loathing. Sociophobia is about fear and loathing. Fascism is about nurturing and exploiting fear and loathing.

Courage isn't the absence of fear; it's doing the "right thing" despite that fear.

Make no mistake: It's about our coWardice!
We've elevated our phobias to the level of national policies.
We're a nation gone insane.

---

"This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address


Fear Itself - Learning to live in the age of terrorism -- A perspective on terrorism: is it a reasonable fear or a phobia?

"YOU ARE NOT AFRAID OF TERRORISM, REALLY. You have weighed the facts and have concluded, rationally, that even if terrorists strike again in this country, the chances are negligible that you or anyone you know will be killed or injured. You feel no special tension when you place your seat tray in the upright position. You are old enough to have lived through other supposedly apocalyptic times, or you've surely heard about them -- most famously, the silly spectacle of 1950s-era schoolkids giggling under their desks in anticipation of The Big One."

All Bush Has to Sell, Is Fear Itself

"The tone is fear. It is all that George W. Bush has left to run on. He cannot run on his record. His record is one of ignoring the American people, not funding education, gutting the environment, blowing up two third world countries, torturing men women and children and thinking international law does not apply to us, alienating our former allies, circumventing the constitution, tax cuts for his rich friends, a crippled economy, net loss of jobs, the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame for political revenge, lies about WMD, lies about Saddam and al Qaeda, lies about almost everything, Halliburton and billions upon billions of dollars in crony capitalism and a terror chart that has no real function other than to keep us scared."

[TahitiNut]

1. (cough)

This isn't worth discussing? Color me perplexed. :crazy:

[sweetheart]

2. Is there something not obvious to discuss

Yes him and his fear-spreaders are lecherous swine cowards.

If comes from big business sales where long term salespeople are
quite familiar with the phrase "FUD". It means "fear uncertainty
and doubt", and it is a salesperson's job to push these values until
they get a close... projecting their fears on to the customer who,
in feeling afraid, figures that making the buy decision will assuage
the fear. Then the salesman sells reinforcement and reassurance that
the person has selected wisely.

Just the fear is a hypnotic suggestion, and rather easy to dispell,
unless you yourself are a victem of fear, and as most of the pathology
of america today, is in fear, it works a charm. I'm amazed at how
people are bonkers afraid of organized religion, but do not see this
spreading of FUD as a basis for government, as even more insideous.

hard work, bolding all those "coWard"'s... nice. ;-)

[TahitiNut]

4. Well, without fear there's no courage.

Cowardice, however, is irrational fear (phobia) accompanied by the choice to cower, scapegoat, and/or bully. When I look at the constituency of the far right, much of what I see are phobias.

Homophobia results in "gay-bashing" (bullying), exclusion of gays (cowering), and ascription of vague threats to the "gay agenda" (scapegoating).

Xenophobia results in "profiling" (bullying), ghettoizing (cowering), and blame ("they hate us for our freedoms").

I see materialism/greed as a nascent phobia - no amount of wealth is enough and the wealth of others is a threat.

When presented with an individual with a demonstrated history of valor, the reaction is phobic denial - an all-out attack on the individual, and a frantic denial of valor (e.g. PHart Band-Aids).

[sweetheart]

5. Like a dog

A dog that has been beaten will often appear shy, and then it lashes
out biting when its fear rises to the surface.

Why so many people are attracted to what amounts to dogs barking
and biting, i'll never understand, but that is the GOP these days.

The dogs are afraid because they peed on the carpet, but they've
got a biblical excuse for hating gays, so it is pretty much like
getting saudi arabia to give equal rights to women... a theocracy
lost to liberalism by fundamentalist extremists.

The dog has gone and started a coupla wars, that have brought out
a wolf pack of more phobic dogs, and they are genuinely afraid that
they stirred up a hornets nest. Then i say sting them at every
corner with their bad call, until the hateful dogs hide under the
bed and leave civilization to homosapiens.

[TahitiNut]

6. Or perhaps more like a rabid (hydroPHOBIA) dog?

As a dog-lover, I resist denigrating them by comparing them to the GOP.

[sweetheart]

7. Good point, the doggie audience might be upset

I asked my dog pack, and they said that "human" was the best name
for such a despicable animal. Right on!

[sandnsea]

3. PHOBIAS!!!!

That's it Tahitinut, that's it!! Phobias. Give me time to read your links and read some more. Phobias. That's the track to take to make people understand what's happening.

[Eloriel]

8. Not often noticed or acknowledged

is the other rampant fear, the fear on OUR side: the fear of Bush. We DUers are so proud of ourselves for seeing thru the fearmongering, but have succumbed to its obverse.