Why We Need an Epidemic of Fearlessness

[madmusic]

Arianna Huffington

09.05.2006

Why We Need an Epidemic of Fearlessness to Counter the Fearmonger-in-Chief (55 comments )

With the fifth anniversary of 9/11 less than a week away, and Election Day 2006 entering the post-Labor Day home stretch, we can expect the White House to play the fear card every chance it gets. As Rahm Emanuel said: "After six years, they've only got fear to sell."

After all, banging the fear-gong and trying to scare the hell out of us every time they need a bump in the polls has worked like a charm for Bush and Rove.

Ratcheting up the fear-mongering rhetoric is Plan A. Plan B is Repeat Plan A.

The president officially kicked off the big push to the midterms with a fear-triggering speech last week in which he warned, "If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face terrorists in the streets of our own cities." We've seen this movie before. It's "Be Very Afraid" all over again.

It has, after all, been a frighteningly effective sales pitch. Fear is a powerful, universal emotion -- always there to be exploited. And that's why we need a major counteroffensive -- a wide-ranging campaign to help spread fearlessness so as to inoculate the country against this shameful campaign strategy.

more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/why-we-need-an-epidemic-o_b_28561.html