I like Michelle's idea about being 'tired of being afraid' - since she seems to be referring to the reactionary kind of politics of fear that dominate US political life. It IS time for a change in that sense. But I believe US life will need an overhaul that goes WAY beyond the politicla in order for that to become a reality. First of all the media will have to change tack - theyw ill have to stop simply trying to scare people all the time (Michael Moore was correct on that one). Unfortunately it seems to outsiders that 'fear is entertainment' in the US. Maybe I'm wrong, but unless it's been stamped romantic comedy and stars Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock (why won't anyone give that woman the decent roles she deserves?) movies generally are about fear. The levels of violence seem truly gratuitous and seem way beyind what's necessary to tell a story. I know some folks might call me reactionary here, but the other night I watched a movie called The Hunter starring Billy Bob Thornton and the guy who played Sgt.Martin in 'Band of Brothers'.

While Billy Bob Thornton played himself as usual, at least "Sgt.Martin" was a more complex character with an odd love of animals clashing with deep disregard for most people. Yet I felt far more violence and detail was provided than was healthy. Too much detail on the training where Billy Bob explained how to gut someone alive, the correct places to stab. they even made their own knives in a sort of primeval ritual before trying to carve each other up. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had picked up bones like the apemen in "2001" and laid into each other. Some people - if even only a minority - who watch this kind of stuff will be tempted to try it out in real life. As it says in the Simpsons - 'now that you know what to do - don't do it'. It isn't the only cause of higher levels of violence, but I suspect it is one contributing factor. At the very least, it desensitises people and invites them to see the 'enemy' as something sub-human.

The bad guys in Hollywood movies are generally treated as something like an outbreak of rats or termites - you don't try to reason with them or understand their behaviour: you can't, because they are just inherently evil and anyway it makes the head hurt to look into things too deeply. You just call pest control (the marines) who will go in and eradicate the pests until the next outbreak. The symbolism is all there - you see who the good guys get 'kitted up' before dispatching the bad guys to hell. Sometimes when they assemble their rifles etc., I'm reminded of someone setting up their power tools before rolling up their sleeves and launching into some hard work. And the bad guys often die in ways that far exceed what's necessary (remember the anti-Arab racism when Arnie has caught a squealing Arab baddie on a rocket and turns to him "you're fired!" Whooooosh! Aieeeee! Yes, let's crack a few jokes while we crack a few heads!

Indeed that is a key feature of certain US foreign policy, and the kind of problem many people have with Obama's pronouncements on places like Pakistan, as mentioned above. With uncontrolled war raging across the Middle East and hundreds of thousands of people - including US soldiers and 'security employees' - dying needlessly, what we need is less war, more thought. Obama belongs to the old school, whether he talks of carpet bombing or surgical strikes. He wants to extend war, drop another bomb here and there as if that will solve anything. Where do you stop? Drop a few bombs in 'precise' places in Pakistan because a few 'terrorists' are holed up somewhere along the border? What if a 'terrorist' surfaces in the Languedoc in southern France or the Chiltern Hills and the police are less than fast enough at tracking him down? What then? Perhaps we could drop a bomb there. And if 20 or 30 innocent people also happen to lose their lives, that's ok, because we got Dr.Evil.

If only life was so simple! First off, a whole new approach is needed to end what's called 'terrorism'. I have argued before that while there will always be a few 'hard men' for whom violence is a way of life (from Bin laden to George Bush), the vast majority of people just want to enjoy life and raise their kids etc., It doesn't matter whether they're from Iowa or Pakistan. Bombs will do nothing. So what, you amange to kill Dr.Evil? Hundreds of new Dr.Evil's will quickly sprout to take his place, and it doesn't take long to learn all you need to know in such conditions to becoem the next Dr.Evil. Would the US suddenly fold up if Bush died / was assassinated? No, I don't think so, as the assassination of Kennedy proved. Why does the US think al-Qaeda or any of those other organisations would be any different?

There's only one way forward, and that's to create a more equal and just world where big buisness doesn't have world governemnts in its pocket and on its payroll and where legislation isn't designed to allow business do what it likes without regard to the human toll and keep the ordinary people under control (witness the use of anti-terror laws in the Uk recently when police arrested enviornmental campaigners at Heathrow - we have an increasingly right wing and 'Yes Man' police force in the West). In the long run it would be much cheaper to do the right thing than contniue to fight endless wars against a concept that will just have the corpses mounting up and up. Of course, it wouldn't be so good for business, especially the vast arms industry.

So the problem is simple really - you can't have your cake and eat it. You can't allow business to do what it likes, interfere with democracies here there and everywhere and expect the world's population to take it lying down and keep quiet because a few bombs are dropped on them.

And it isn't even doing Americans any favours (or Russians etc., for that matter). The big corporations may have helped make America rich once, but that wealth is increasingly being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. I'm sure Americans realise how 'patriotic' their big businsses are when they are left without jobs, pensions, decent social security or health care, as their big companies relocate to where wages are peanuts and governments are repressive enough to break trade unions with violence if necessary and keep the serfs servile.


Ok, Ok I'd better stop somewhere or put it all in a book....once I get on my soap box....!

Anyway, in sum, I agree with Michelle's idea of not living in fear anymore. Barak Obama is not that different in my opinion because he still thinks in terms of war as solving the world's ills. We need something truly more visionary. We need to stop fearing fellow man and finding ways to live together with enough room for everyone on this big planet. Talk of terror and terrorism just feeds into fear. There are people killing watonly on all sides and its time for that to stop (not that they'll listen to me!)