Why we should fear fear

FDR said we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Now it seems we (the USA, Britain and Canada) have succumbed to exactly that, to fear. Fear dominates our daily lives, and, because of the pandemic of paranoia which afflicts us, we have surrendered many of our precious freedoms.

Three things got me thinking about this. The first was the noticeable presence of CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras virtually everywhere one goes in Once-Great Britain. I'm not talking only about airports and train stations, but about malls, streets, even laneways and alleys in small towns in the beautiful English countryside. Believe it, Big Brother really is watching you!

Of course we have CCTV in the USA and Canada too. As I write, the Toronto police are busy installing still more "temporary" cameras in that city's downtown core. This is in advance of the G20 summit that will be held in "Toronto the Good" in a month's time.

The cost of "security" for the 36-hour meeting of world "leaders" (including the presidents of Ethiopia and Malawi!) looks like being more than a billion Canadian dollars. That's almost the same as a billion real dollars. All so Prime Minister Harpoon won't get pied during his photo-op with Bollocks Obama.

Then there's the mystery of the sticky stamps. Agent 3 is a stamp collector. He writes Walt to ask why US stamps, unlike those of other countries, can't be steamed or soaked off envelopes. What kind of adhesive does the USPS use...and why?

Walt is stuck for an answer. [Geddit? ed.] But my theory is they use some kind of super-glue so that Osama Bin Laden can't put some kind of germs -- anthrax spores, maybe -- under the stamps so the poison will be unleashed when Agent 3 or some other crazed collector tries to get the stamp off the paper and into his album. If anyone can give a less silly explanation, please e-mail walt.whiteman@yahoo.com.

Since 2001, we live in constant fear of "terrorism", of Osama Bin Laden, of "them". Especially in the Excited States of America, paranoia trumps reason and freedom. This is hardly a news flash. For a good rant on the subject, read Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country?

Moore has been accused of being anti-American and -- horrors! -- anti-war. But the main point of his book is that the Bush administration used 9/11 as a pretext to strip Americans of many of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

Moore cites the USAPATRIOT Act as the most egregious attack ever on the freedom of the individual. Has this act, which set up an authoritarian system rivalling those of Russia and China, been weakened or repealed by the liberal-minded Mr. Obama? No.

The all-seeing, all-powerful government and social order -- make that ORDER -- described by George Orwell in 1984 is the norm in America and its cowering cousins today. We live in a police state. Do your work, pay your taxes...and keep your mouth shut! Or else!