Paul Donnelly's Page

I'm knew to this and am not sure how this forum works or if it's anything like a blog but I have a question that I would like to hear thoughts and opinions from people of this community about this thing called fear.Fear in essence keeps us alive. Without fear we don't have any inhibitions about doing potentially dangerous things that would end or hurt our lives. We enjoy the feeling at times which is why horror films are so popular, (surprisingly NOT because of the steller acting jobs. lol) So at first light it seems a natural and fun emotion.But this is not the case in the majority of the USA. We live in a 24/7 cable news day where every time I flip on the channel I see something else I need to be afraid of. I understand we live in a fast-paced world where things seem to change at an alarming rate but I still just don't believe everyone must fear 1000 things at once. I see this with the health care debate where people who don't even know what socialism is are vehemently declaring that the bill will lead the country to what they picture socialism is when in fact it will help the country dramatically. I see it with President Obama and people who fear him again with socialism. I see the right-wing talk shows of hannity, beck, O'Riley, Limbaugh, Savage, and others who just spread fear and misinformation and I wonder when as a society will we break with all this fear.I believe fear of real things and things that actually can do us harm is something good and healthy. But submerging our entire culture with fear is something that corrodes the mind. It leads to paranoia which leads to irrational actions. Like trying to block the passage of a bill that will raise the federal tax level back up to the Clinton era with something very helpful inside...by comparing it to Hitler and the Holocaust as one fox news anchor tried to do. Nixon had paranoia that led to the Watergate incident which led to him being the only president EVER to retire. I just feel that when a society immerses itself in fear it prohibits us from being progressive at all. We make sacrifices of our liberty for security (patriot act) and we just walk around jumping at our own shadow. How can we think we can ever madke progress as a society in a culture of fear?See More