Digby, ever interesting, has an interesting post. My comment turned into a treatise, so, since I have my own damn blog...
The high school references got me to thinking....
Remember Bull Durham? How do you get them to listen?
"They're kids. Scare 'em."
Lollygaggers.
What, you think Americans are afraid of terrorism? Nah, they know terrorism is not actually a threat to themselves as individuals. Nope, what Americans are afraid of is that this will be the last year that they ever make this much money, for the rest of their lives. They are afraid of not doing whatever they are doing now, but instead having to work at Wal-Mart, for the rest of their damn lives.
They are afraid of falling out of the middle class, and never even coming close to it ever again.
They are efraid that their kids will get sick, and break them. Their afraid their kids will get into a good school, and break them. They are afraid that one setback will keep them from dancing as fast as they can, and they will fall from grace in flames.
They are afraid they will not be able to take care of their children, their elderly parents, or even themselves.
The have a fundamental fear that the American economy is going to get harder and harder, that they are getting older faster,and that the money in this world is running away from them at an ever faster rate.
They tremble in fear at the thought of things slipping further into recession, but the most fearful thing in their entire skittish psyche, more frightening viscerally to them than any mushroom cloud, is the single most fear-inducing thing in all of American History: The Depression.
Bread lines, families forced onto the road to find sustenance, everyone thrown into the cold and heartless river.
They believe they've been convinced that it can't happen again. They believe they know that things have changed. They believe we are too big to fail.
But in their hearts, there lives a fear, a very small but exceedingly dark and sharp fear, that the world is changing, that they can't possibly know for sure, and that if the fear is real then they will be powerless to defend their families from the whirlwind.
Educating their children, caring for their aged parents, assurance that they will get medical care if they become ill, and a future that is a better place for their children to have children of their own, these are the hopes and aspirations of most Americans. Throw in an occasional beer during a football game and a little time for a rollicking roll in the hay with the Mrs., and you have yourself one happy Dad.
The cost of education, the cost of healthcare, the fragility of employment, the constant feeling that things are getting more difficult every day, and suddenly the fear has started to grow, like exotic foreign fauna, with no native predators to control it.
And lots and lots of people know who might believe that an economic apocalypse is the stern medicine the American people just might need to suffer through in order to toughen up, don't we?
They're kids. And they're already scared as hell.
Posted by dglynn at March 12, 2005 03:34 AM | TrackBack