The Power of Nightmares

"In the past, politicians promised to create a better world. They had different ways of achieving this, but their power and authority came from the optimistic visions they offered their people. Those dreams failed and today people have lost faith in ideologies. Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life, but now they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us: from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand."

This is the start of part 3 of the BBC documentary series 'The Power of Nightmares.' The videos are freely available on the internet and I ran into this part 3 in Google video while searching for something completely different (to paraphrase a completely different BBC film series - in case you don't recognize that immediately, it's from Monty Python.)

This part is, like the others, one hour long, but I just had to spend the time to watch it because it fits so much into what we are doing here on this site, that I could consider this study-time. In case you want to spend the time, here it is...

What fascinates me most about this firm, is the fact that it plays hand in hand with the philosophy we promote here at NoFearIRS, that there is actually no, or very little, reason for the fear we are creating for us. Or, as in this example, allow others to create in us.

Do you notice that I really avoid to say that these politicians create the fear? They don't - they might try, but in order to be successful we have to agree with them and allow the fear to enter us. There just is no way around it, that each and every one of us is responsible for what he experiences. In this case at hand, if we do experience fear, we allowed this fear to enter while we had the choice not to do it.

Films like the one above make it easier to accomplish the feat of letting attempts to scare just ripple off of us. They make it a bit easier in the beginning, but they are by no means necessary. Even if the whole of experts and scientists want to tell me that we will fall off the edge of the world if we sail too far, I don't have to listen to them. Columbus was one of them who did not. Or Galileo Galilei, or many others who created an abundance of progress for mankind.

So, make your life, and the correct decisions within, a bit easier by watching the video, or go to the internet archive and watch the whole series 'The Power of Nightmares'. You will even find an ISO images to burn a DVD from to watch on your TV. As I am writing this I am at 6% downloaded and it will probably go all night. But I certainly want that film physically in my hands to be able to show others.

What kind of question is that - if you have killed any children lately?

Obviously most of you will proudly proclaim that you don't kill or maim children. There is the rare exception, but most of us will really believe that we do not kill children, but maybe we should take another look.

let us start with looking at some pictures so that we get in the mood...

Also this one is still rather easy to handle...

Let's get a little bit tougher...

How about some classics that you might have seen before...

But now let's get real tough, but I still really want you to look...

And this one really seems to be dead - I mean like in 'DEAD'...

And now imagine that I have the galls to say you are responsible for all that! And I really mean YOU - the person here in front of your computer reading these lines.  I know you are feeling a lot of objection down there inside of you, but I can't, and would not,  release you from this uncomfortable feeling, that this might in fact be true.

If there is not at least a little voice that tries to tells you, yes, you are responsible for that, then this is probably the wrong article for you to read and you should type YouTube into your browser and forget about what you saw here.

OK, you are still here, good - then there is a chance that we can change something about that. Only if we face what really IS, do we have a chance to make changes.

Obviously you see where I am aiming at, right? All these atrocities are committed by some form of government, and all these governments get the money from - whom? - the good tax-payers of these governments, right? Sometimes the citizenry is coerced into paying at gun point, sometimes it gives freely because they believe in the good intention and righteousness of 'their' government.

There is no way around it - the money to buy the bullet, that blew off that boys leg, was paid by somebody and it might well have been you through your contribution on tax day. For most of us that would be hard to live with, wouldn't it?

Many of you have the excuse that they did not have a choice but to pay, otherwise they would have gotten into trouble. That might certainly be true, but if you trade the life of another human being for your own convenience then I actually don't want you to continue reading my words - please go back to America's Funniest Home Videos.

... still here?

Good! Now we are getting somewhere, but I am sure that by now the group of my readers has considerably thinned out. There are not that many of us that have principles strong enough to overcome the fear of the tax collected and stand up to the egocentricity of staying out of trouble whatever the cost - - for somebody else.

If you are still with me now but have not taken steps yet to stop the money flow to buy more bullets or napalm you must have been doing something to silence that nagging voice inside of you. Which did you chose? Did you give freely to charity, did you adopt a foster-child in the developing world or have you joined the peace corps?

I personally was in the second group - and am actually still part of it. The first adopted foster children I had were taken over from my father when he passed away. He had made the commitment to support these two children in Africa up to the age of 18 and I kept that promise in his name. Later, within my own family, we continued with a new set of children after these first two graduated from the Childreach program, now called PlanUSA. I still believe that it is a good idea to help children this way but I know that I can do a lot more by taking the funds away from the people who create those inhuman conditions in the first place, getting rich while doing so.

I can certainly not tell you what to do. Despite the first amendment I would be accused of interfering with the administration of the tax laws, if I would tell you to shut off the money flow to such immoral and unethical causes. So I will not because I want to continue ranting, but I can ask you to scroll up and look at the pictures above once more and then make your own decision.

If you are not quite at the point where you want to take responsibility for some children on the other side of the world that you never have, and never will have, anything to do with, you may take, for now, a bit more egotistical point of few. Let us take the golden rule of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Doesn't that mean that if you buy bullets to maim or kill  the children of other parents that you want those parents to buy bullets to kill your child or children? That hits a little bit closer to home, doesn't it?

I know, I am pretty mean, but I want to give you this last picture on your way as you go on making money and paying it to the henchman...

Footnote:

Did I mention that anything a government does is done better by a profit oriented enterprise - just in case you want to argue that most of your taxes pay for schools and roads and all the good stuff. Why? Because they are using hammers that cost six bucks instead of sixty.

Even defense can be handled that way. A big poster on the internet: Osama Bin Laden - Dead or Alive - One Billion Dollars! What chances, do you think, bin Laden would have had? Very efficient, a lot cheaper, and that little boy above  would not have that box closed permanently over him. But as you gave our 'leaders' all that money, they needed to spend it to show you that it was correct that they collected it from you.

Now...

if you want to change something, but that fear of the taxman with the gun is bugging you so much that you are just frozen, there will be help to overcome that on this site. Start by registering and let me know that you are willing to make some change.