The paranoid belief that someone is always ready to harm this country

[KlatooBNikto]

and its people is very similar to the paranoia that has been around since the 60's that blacks were going to kill, maim and rob us all.In fact, I remember the time when a mad man in Newark, N.J. called Anthony Imperiale was organizing a vigilante force to stop black people from buying homes in white neighborhoods.Similarly, another woman called Louise Day Hicks wanted to stop busing in Boston to stop the integration of schools.

This never ending paranoid attitudes have now been transported overseas, notably the Middle East. Just as Native Americans were dubbed savages to make it possible for us to slaughter them at will, it will now be feasible to rain down death on all Arabs because they are "terrorists".

The more things change, the more......etc.

[rkc3]

1. Isn't that the point of Bowling for Columbine?

We're fed a daily dose of fear and rather than fighting it, we give up our rights to those in charge.

[pnutchuck]

3. Good movie, and I do agree that we are fed a perception of fear

But as I stated below, America's policies are creating these threats to our safety. However, I don't believe in guns or that Osamas going to walk into Cold Stone while I'm buying an ice cream and that I might have an opportunity to gun him down if I only had an AK47.

[rkc3]

4. Try telling that idea to RW nutjobs who think Muslims hate us for

our freedoms. They've been fed this line so often there is no room for your comments. They hate America for our policies and that we shove them down their throats.

They hate us for supporting the leaders in their countries who, despite the immeasurable wealth they have through oil reserves, prefer to hold their countrymen down with their dictatorships.

The list goes on and on, but these idiots can only hear they hate us for our freedoms.

[pnutchuck]

2. I wouldn't go so far to say that it is all just paranoia

I lived in Bali when the bombing of 12 Oct 02 occurred. That was a direct attack on a tourist night club that catered mainly to Westerners. I lost my gallery there because it was with in the shock radius.

I was in Thailand when a tourist bus attacked by a group of muslims and 2 people were killed. I will admit that this was an isolated incident and had more to do with opposing their own government. However, after the war in Iraq began, I was denied vacancies in hotels based on my passport. Many hotels in Southern Thailand did this to protest the war. Also, both in Indonesia and Thailand, organizers started signing up volunteers to fight against US imperialism.

I think there is a very real threat to Americans abroad in Muslim countries and most of it is fueled by the on going occupation of Iraq. Also, we have created these terrorists by our CIA black ops arming and training them in terrorist tactics to fight our perceived enemies only to abandon them and their people with this knowledge. We go into countries and give them weapons and promises of support only to leave them worse than they were with the oppressive regimes.

[dummy-du1]

5. The Paranoid Style in American Politics

http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/conspiracy_theory/the_paranoid_mentality/The_paranoid_style.html