Every Day is Halloween in America – A Nation of “Scardy Cats”
A Nation Scared of Everything – Yup It’s America
I always loved it when the people handing out candy for Halloween would open the door with a yell or were wearing some frightful costume. We would all scream, jump back laughing with that exhilarating thrill of being scared! It’s one of Life’s simple pleasures, being frightened…..but not all the time……
When I was a kid and went trick-or-treating with the other kids in the neighborhood, it would have been inconceivable that our parents would be following us around. And it wasn’t just Halloween When we went hiking or to the movies or played sports I can’t remember any parents being around. Those were glorious times.
Now don’t get all excited and start in on the “there are perverts everywhere these days” argument. Our parents told us that there were bad people out there and to watch out for each other. I believe we were more self-reliant and less neurotic than kids today because our parents, who grew up during the Depression, were made of tougher stuff than parents today. Is it any wonder that America has become a nation SCARED OF EVERYTHING? This whole “culture of fear” is symbolized by the ridiculous “Homeland Security Terrorist Alert System” created by the propagandists who infected the last administration:
It doesn’t take a PhD to understand why Americans have become a nation of “scardy cats.” If Homeland Security isn’t scaring the “beJesus” out of the public with color-coded dooms day scenarios, then it’s the Media who have us afraid of our own shadows. We are encouraged to “be afraid, be very afraid” of EVERYTHING: our food, our cars, our neighbors, our schools, our government, the commies, the socialists, the perverts, the “illegal immigrants,” the flu shot and on and on and on. This atmosphere of fear is making it impossible for America to face the 21st Century with a sense of wonder and courage. Instead, it seems as if we want to hide behind the past and avoid the pain of progress. It’s an unhealthy way to deal with the world and we need to get a grip on reality!
An Irrational Culture of Fear
There is a huge body of literature dealing with the “Culture of Fear” in America. The most interesting and impressive work, “The Culture of Fear” (Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things), written by Barry Glassner, points out that much of the angst felt in America today is unjustified. Many of our common fears have been manufactured by a cynical mass Media and these irrational fears will be our downfall if we arent’ careful. Witness the insanity of recent “town hall meetings” or the debate over health care or the fact that the U.S. is responsible for 1/2 of the world’s military spending. And you know, one of the more down-to-earth manifestations of our fear is the fact that kids can’t be kids and go out for Halloween without mom and dad following them around.
October 30th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
And as the “Greatest Generation” listened ………
“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”: FDR’s First Inaugural Address ……………
Speach text and audio excerpt
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5057/
October 30th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Depends on your neighborhood. Where I lived, we had to be driven to each house, since it wasn’t that densely packed on our side of the lake back in Lake Orion Michigan. Now the other side of the lake we lived on was a subdivision, and my parents would park in one spot and we’d hit every house that we could on foot.
My parents thought nothing of leaving us kids to our own devices. I’d go for long walks in the woods that were behind my house (now turned into a subdivision), and walking a couple of miles to see a few friends. And this was in the 1970s!
I blame it in part on the rise of easy access entertainment. Times was cartoons were only on at a set time and when they were done, you’d go outside to play. Now there are cable channels dedicated to wall to wall toons. Plunk the kids in front of the boob tube and don’t worry about them.