There's a new bogeyman lurking in the closet. Sadly it is us.
Thanks in part to the politics of fear, a new study reveals that one out of three children aged 6 to 11 fears that our planet won't exist when they grow up. More than half—56%—worry that the planet will be a blasted heath (or at least a very unpleasant place to live).
Listen, I don't want to give too much credence to a study commissioned by Habitat Heroes that only polled a sample of 500 American preteens. However, there can be little doubt that as leaders (of all political spectrum's) have steadily increased their rhetoric portraying a world on the brink of collapse, we have created an environment of fear for future generations. Peggy Noonan hits the nail on the head when she says that more and more we are scaring our children to death.
Children are both brave and fearful. They'll walk up to a stranger and say something true that a grown-up would fear to say. But they are also subject to terrors, some of them irrational, and to anxieties. They need a stable platform on which to stand. From it they will be likely to step forward into steady adulthood. Without it, they will struggle; they will be less daring in their lives because life, they know, is frightful and discouraging.
We are not giving the children of our country a stable platform. We are instead giving them a soul-shaking sense that life is unsafe, incoherent, full of random dread.
...for all our protestations about how sensitive we are, how interested in justice, how interested in the children, we are not. We are interested in politics. We are interested in money. We are interested in ourselves.
As mentioned here, in abandoning a message of hope and inspiration our political leaders have created a dark cloud of gloom that hangs heavy over a proud nation built through vision, enthusiasm and perseverance. Now is the opportunity for political leaders of all stripes to turn from the politics of fear and instead inspire citizens of all ages to greater possibilities and better tomorrows. It's what the people are craving and what "the children" deserve.
"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." - Jeremiah 29:11
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2 comments:
Why create fear?
This is not new! During the presidency of Woodrow Wilson progressive journalist George Creel was to head the Committee on Public Information. Creel was a former liberal journalist and police commissioner in Denver who had gone so far as to forbid his cops from carrying nightsticks or guns.
Fear was a vital tool, Creel argued, "an important elememt to be bred into the civilian population. It is difficult to unite a people by talking only on the highest ethical plane. To fight for an ideal, perhaps, must be coupled with thoughts of self-preservation." (quote from Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg on page 109)
Creel went on to say: "It was a fight for the minds of men, for the conquest of the convictions... and the battle ran through every home in the country."
Now I understand "Global Warming!"
Are we reliving history, for just 90 years ago our grandparents and parents lived under "progressive liberal style of government control".
"President Wilson and a vast majority of progressive intellectuals beleived that the ever expanding increase in state power was entirely natural, an inevitable evolutionary process." (Goldberg p. 86)
This belief is not dead, just re incarnated...with new words of "hope".... even though we in our lifetime have witnessed the grand failure of the "Great Society". Where are the great apartment complexes that were to "save the poor"? Their bricks lay broken and recycled. Who paid the price? The family! That's OK? The "state" with be the family! Has that worked! I don't think so.... Our own present Government through 19 studies over the past two decades has told us our prisons are filled with men who had no positive male role model in their home.
Bring on the "Tea Parties".
Reveis...welcome!! Great to see someone on here posting references!
Speaking of fear...brace yourselves now before the May election. Teachers are already planning on using '"fear" to have people vote yes on 1a-f. Saying our students won't have teachers. One comment was even made.."we have have to think about the now not the future!"
So if this was parenting and you gave your kid $10 and they blew that $10 on candy...would you give your kids $15 to make them feel better? No you let them learn from their mistakes.
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