Hyperbolic Fear

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. Henry David Thoreau

On August 21, 2006, at a press conference President Bush made a statement about the war in Iraq, "If we leave [Iraq] before the mission is complete, if we withdraw, the enemy will follow us home." This is hyperbolic fear that has been used for centuries by leaders to encourage the cooperation of the group members. I'm sure there are members of the group who foresee hordes of Muslims landing on our shores, or coming across our borders, even though the hordes do not have a navy or airforce. The enemy was here before we invaded Iraq because we did not keep them out. If the government had done its job there would have been no enemies here.

There were 43,000 deaths on American highways in 2005. Why are Americans not afraid to drive? Their chances of dying on a highway are much greater than dying from a deranged Muslim.

The mission of our "Defense" department should be to secure our borders and keep "them" from "following us home". This would be much more cost efficient than invading other countries.

If the President wanted to really secure our ports and borders he could create a Civil Border Patrol, similar to the Civil Air Patrol. http://www.cap.gov/ Such a request by the President would have several million volunteers standing watch along our 75,000 miles of borders and coastline.

Every leader tries to instill fear in its group. The early Christian leaders knew this so they created Hell, presided over by the evil Satan. The group members became afraid, joined the church, gave their money to the con men, and that is how the Pope became rich.

Plato had it right when he described leaders;
"Quick intelligence, memory, sagacity, cleverness, and similar qualities do not often grow together. People who are high-spirited and generous are not built by nature to live in an orderly, peaceful, settled manner. Instead, they are driven every which way by their impulses and all firm principles leave them. On the other hand, those stable and steadfast and, it seems, more trustworthy natures, which in a battle are impregnable to fear and immovable, are equally immovable when there is anything to be learned. They are always in a torpid state and are apt to yawn and go to sleep over any intellectual toil." The Republic, Book 6 503c Benjamin Jowett 4th Ed.

We have heard that the Koran advocates violence against non Muslims. I support an amendment to the U. S. Constitution that would prohibit any religion that advocates violence. This might include Christianity since it also has a history of violence. This link is to a site that gives hundreds of examples in the Christian Bible that advocate violence. http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/long.html Here's one, Exodus 31:15 "Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death." Here is another link that exposes the violence advocated by the Christian Bible. http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/BibleQuotes.htm#jckills

Why did Christian violence become illegal? It is because western ideas that man owns himself became more popular than the Muslim idea that Allah owns man. The ideas of the ancient Greeks, that the life on earth is as important as the after life, took hold during the renaissance. Despite the dark ages in Europe where Christianity tried to control critical thinking, the idea that man is free to reason began to control religion.

Why has Islam, especially Arabic Islam, not kept up with western ideas? I think it is because of the tribal nature of the Arabic world.

I knew an airline pilot who flew in WW II. Shortly after the war ended he was sent to Saudi Arabia to fly King Saud around in a DC-3. The pilot showed me an old photograph of him and the King in front of the DC-3. The pilot told me the king offered him women but the pilot refused because the women were so dirty. The pilot told me of the tribal culture that was so dominant in Arabia. Tribal culture has held back the Arabs because tribal cultures are communist. Communist and socialist cultures lag behind any free enterprise culture that allows property rights and rewards effort. The Arab world of Islam wants to blame the west for the poverty in the middle east. Envy and revenge is hurting the Arab world more than it is hurting the west.

Bilbo Baggins