Fear

I traveled into work on the subway this morning – the same day the Mayor talked about a “credible threat” happening and the fact that I might be blown to bits an exploding baby.

Well thankfully nothing happened and the “credible threat” has yet to materialize. Hopefully it won’t.

It’s been a paranoid few days here in NYC and once again I’ve been proud of the reaction of New Yorkers to all this shit – they are a pragmatic bunch to say the least! Most New Yorkers went about their business as usual and middle finger salutes were hefted in the direction of Al-Queda, Mayor Bloomberg and George Dubya.

Fear is an amazing controlling substance. You can tell most people that as soon as they step out the door they are going to be raped by a crack-addicted-AIDS-infected-rottweiler and there is no way they will ever leave the house again.

Stay at home! Your Government is in control!

I was watching CNN after the London subway bombings and after the customary 3 minutes devoted to the actual story, they moved onto the “When will it happen to us?” part and proceeded to rack up the hysteria another notch!

Thankfully however, they also had a segment entitled “How to lessen your terror fears!” with a psychologist whose first recommendation was “Limit your exposure to the media!” I immediately turned off the TV and felt 10 times better.

It was then that it stuck me – Holy Shit! It’s not Osama Bin Laden that I am scared of it’s CNN!

Now I’m not saying you should walk around in blissful ignorance (although I am sometimes jealous of people who do this), actually I am saying the opposite. Educate yourself by watching CNN but then turn over and tune into Al-Jazeera and get a different point of view.

A little bit of balance lessens the fear. I’m believe that fear is born out of ignorance more that anything else - I am scared to do something because I don’t know anything about it!

It seems to me to have seeped into all walks of life now, even the mundane things. Think about it -Why do we have more Starbucks and Wallmarts than small family owned stores now? People say it’s because we like the consistency of the stuff we can buy there - a Starbucks cup of coffee tastes exactly the same in NYC as it does in Scotland and in China.

I’m starting to think it is more because we are scared of the inconsistency of the product at an independent store. I’ve had some crap cups of coffee in my life (especially in Scotland!) so in my mind Starbuck’s becomes the safe bet.

Doesn’t this take the fun out of living. Yes, it is likely that sometimes you will get a bad cup of coffee every now and then but you’ll also get some really good ones, better even than Starbucks!

There is a line in a Gil Scott Heron song that comes to mind a lot when I find myself in Ikea/Wallmart/Starbucks:

“Plastic people with plastic minds are on their way to plastic homes”.

Don’t let that happen to you….