America's New Epidemic: Fear!

America once had the distinction of being the "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave". I'm not sure how accurate that label actually fit America back in those days (I'm only 27 years old), but it sure as hell doesn't seem to fit America today. Most Americans are scared shitless of every little thing the news, their church, friends, or parents tells them to be afraid of. They're afraid of terrorists, Muslims, child molesters, drugs, drug users, drinking from plastic bottles, trans fats, greenhouse gasses, global warming, global cooling, too much salt, high-fructose corn syrup, genetically modified foods, rich people, poor people, racists, pit bulls, vaccinations, gay people, guns, lead paint, Hispanics, Blacks, atheists, swine flu, the year 2012, and a million other things (please feel free to add more in the comment section bellow). I'm not saying that some of these things aren't real and don't actually pose some threat, but the odds of you getting hurt, or killed by any of these people, or things are zero, or at least not enough for your average person to waste a minute of their time worrying about it.

I'll admit, I have my own fears, and some of them are just as irrational. I don't like spiders, scorpions, or centipedes (the video below shows how much I'm afraid of centipedes). Snakes don't really bug me that bad, as long as I know they aren't venomous. I fell out of a window as a kid and I think that's why I'm afraid of heights. Since I can't swim, I have always had a fear of being in a car crash where I end up in some body of water and drown. To be honest, these are some pretty common fears. Being that I'm a clumsy guy and I can't swim, being afraid of heights and being around bodies of water aren't really that irrational.



Now being afraid isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's what helps living organisms to survive, but your way of reacting to it can be a bad thing. If you let it get to you, you can ruin your life with worry, or react in a way that's much more harmful to you and others. The difference in my fear of things and a lot of Americans' fear of things is I don't ask the government to protect me.

There's a lot of talk about the new TSA body scanners and embarrassing pat-downs at airports lately. This country has been in constant fear of terrorism since 9-11 and it's been afraid of many other things even before that. The government feeds on fear and our fear is what has made our government grow to the horrendous size it is today. Some would say it got that way out of greed, laziness, or just people who have a different view of how government should be run. While some of that does contribute, I think at the main roots of big government is fear. People are afraid they have no way to protect themselves, and the politicians love to win votes by telling people how they plan to make them feel safe. You cannot have a free country when the citizens are afraid of everything to the point they want to trade their freedoms for some "feeling" of security. I think people who do advocate such an exchange should be labeled as nothing less than cowards. In fact, I think all liberty loving people should start using the term "coward" to describe any statist who wants government to protect them.

I have been in many discussions with people over this TSA travesty and the ones who support the TSA often suggest that people who don't want to go through this screening should just drive their car, take a train, or a bus to where they want to go. Why should the people who don't want this be the ones who have to take an alternate route? They aren't afraid of terrorists killing them, or at least not to the point they think these new things will stop one. Metal detectors and bomb sniffing dogs, while their effectiveness against terrorist could be weighed by the cost it takes in operating them vs. the odds of a terrorist actually trying to blow up a plane, people don't care that much since it doesn't intrude too much into their lives. The new measures show them naked, or require that they be treated like guilty criminals and touched by a complete stranger until they are found not guilty. This is crossing the line for many people. It's costing tax payers more money for these measures, so even if you aren't flying you'll still have to pay for them.

If you're worried about terrorist blowing up your plane, why don't YOU take a car, train, or bus? You'd be saving us time and money on this fear based boondoggle that terrorists will just find some way around. I don't make you pay some government agency to kill all the spiders around my house, so why should I pay so you can fly at ease in an airplane that could still crash, or get blown up? If you are afraid of terrorist, then don't fly. I wouldn't take a train, or bus since they've hit those targets in the past also. Your best bet would be taking a car, or just staying at home hunkered in a closet. Of course, that doesn't always protect you from terrorists either...



I'm sorry, here I am talking about how Americans are too scared of everything and I'm probably spreading more fear. It's just that somehow, we think that the only way a terrorist can kill people is if he, or she gets a bomb on an airplane. It's not as if they couldn't just walk into any other crowded area, or get on some other kind of public transportation, and blow up a bomb. They couldn't just go on a shooting rampage in a church, school, or hospital. You're more likely to die in a plane crash from just mechanical problem, pilot error, or probably even geese flying into the engines than from terrorists blowing it up. I honestly don't think anyone could take over a huge plane like they did on 9-11 and fly it into a building. They locked the cockpit doors and they got guns on there now. Even if they did manage to try to take over, the passengers would fight back like on Flight 93. The plane might go down, but it would be very hard for them to successfully pilot one into a building. If you want to be safer, maybe we should spend more money checking out the planes for mechanical problem, instead of checking out passengers.

The truth is, if a terrorist wants to kill you, there is no way the government is going to protect you. The shoe bomber and underwear bomber were thwarted by passengers, not the TSA. While the TSA could stop some terrorists, it's not going to catch them by fondling the bodies of old women and little children. You're also not going to be saving lives by exposing frequent fliers to x-rays. When you're life is on the line, you stand a better chance of surviving if you just rely on protecting yourself instead of relying on someone else to protect you.

Remember Hurricane Katrina? Who could forget? Some could have got out of that area, but just thought that the government would protect them. Their reliance on government to protect them cost some people their lives. If they knew they would be on their own like they were, then maybe they would have got the hell outta Dodge, err New Orleans. What if we just allowed people to carry guns on board airplanes before 9-11? Do you think the terrorists would have still been able to run those planes into the buildings and killed thousands? Instead of box cutters, they might have taken it over with guns, but other passengers might have had guns, fought back, and prevented one of the worst tragedies of our time.

You just have to accept that someday, something is going to kill you. If I crash into water, there's no way the government is going to protect me. Hopefully I can find someway out of the wrecked car and find something that floats, or maybe someone else will come to my rescue. Maybe I might die. The odds are, it'll probably be your own actions that will lead to your own death, or your own survival. Weigh the risks for what they really are, be smart, and live your life the best way you can. You sometimes have to take risks in life. In a way, risks are what make life enjoyable. If we all lived in a world where we were 100% safe from every little thing, it would be so dull that I'd welcome someone to kill me.

The only Americans that actually have a validated fear of being killed by a terrorist are the soldiers and contractors we've sent over to the Middle East. If you really want to protect Americans from terrorist, bring these people home. If you really want to end the war on terror, get this government to stop pissing off terrorists. If you smoke cigarettes, have already had a series of heart attacks, or speed to work every day without wearing a seat belt, terrorism shouldn't be anywhere on your list of things to worry about. Prioritize your fears. What's the most likely thing that's going to kill you? If you're going to worry, worry about that; not something that's never going to happen to you. Shit happens, so get on with your life and stop worrying about it.