 |
| Rob's Soapbox | ||
|
Monday, September 14th, 2009 FEAR FOR SALE In the wake of a recent on-air discussion about the absurd hysteria of Hog Flu, a listener called the show to say “the reason there hasn’t been an outbreak of H1N1 is because the hysteria has made us all more aware.” This reminded me of a caller we had a year ago who had the audacity to claim that the reason the bird flu virus never mutated was because we had taken the appropriate steps to prevent an outbreak. Those steps, by the way, included $50 billion of American taxpayer money spent needlessly on a vaccine stockpile that will never be used. Upon history’s garbage pile of wolf crying, along with Swine Flu and Bird Flu, are a myriad of impossible consequences that were promised us if we did nothing about the West Nile Virus, Y2K, SARS, Mad Cow Disease and plenty of others. This is how we sell people in 2009; we needlessly scare them. Here’s the formula: 1. Predict a devastating outcome that you know will never actually happen 2. Demand that people immediately act; for if they don’t, the devastating outcome is inevitable. 3. When the devastating outcome that you always knew wouldn’t occur fails to happen, take credit for preventing something that never had any possibility of occurring. Genius. We have seen this formula used upon us time and time again, yet we continue to fall prey to it over and over again. It’s not new, it’s just more prevalent. Televangelists have been using this scam since the dawn of Jesus Christ himself. Oral Roberts once claimed that he would die if millions weren’t donated to his church. The next morning, when he awoke alive, he claimed victory over stopping something that could never have happened! Less than a year ago, we were told that our financial system would collapse if we didn’t pass an enormous stimulus package that has left America trillions of dollars in debt. There was never any chance of this nation’s economic system crashing and everyone knew it. The American system, we all knew, would slowly fix itself, which it has and is still doing. The stimulus, which has actually spent less than 10% of its overall price tag has had nothing to do with it! Yet, plenty of people claim otherwise. That’s right, the stimulus prevented an economic meltdown that never had any chance of happening. For more than a decade we have been told that the earth will burn up, ice caps will melt and polar bears will die if we don’t go green. These predictions are made about the entire globe’s weather for the next 100 years by people who cannot correctly predict tomorrow’s weather in any given city. Three decades ago we were warned of a new ice age, now we’re warned of global warming despite cooling temperatures. Next decade, we will be told that emission control laws and the banning of hair spray prevented a climatic catastrophe that never had any chance of ever happening. We were told that millions of jobs would be lost and the American economy would crumble if we didn’t rescue the American auto manufacturers! This, in a nation where dozens of foreign car companies have factories building plenty of cars, needing plenty of parts and laborers. After an absurd Robin-Hood-like program called “Cash for Clunkers,” we’re told that we have saved an industry that was never in any danger of threatening the American economy. Now, we are being told that if we don’t completely revamp our entire health care system we will go bankrupt. We are told every day how bad the American health care system is, despite the fact that everyone from every corner of the earth travels here when they need care. We are a nation of scared, gullible pussies. We live to be afraid! We want to be told what to be scared of and who will protect us, and the people that are supposed to be in charge of protecting you are now finding ways to control you. You are not being protected from actual threats; you are being duped into believing to be afraid of things that cannot and will not happen or hurt you so that you also conclude that you are being protected and saved from things that can’t happen by people that don’t care about you. This is the new world order; sell fear. Anyone who has an agenda simply makes up a catastrophe and then sells its’ horrible outcome, waiting to be thanked later for saving you from something that never could have happened in the first place. We, as a nation, have become a soccer mom; we live a life of “better safe than sorry.” We are afraid of everything, even nothing…and we aren’t living at all.
|
||