Culture of 2011: Fear

We have been bombarded with scenes of torture and crime.. mayhem and murder.. terrorism.. fear.. and this is all just in our entertainment! This is all just at the 10pm hour.. this is all just at our local movie theater.

Since 2001, the American mind has been on a steady diet of fear porn. Our pop culture and entertainment forever changed with airplanes flying into buildings ten years ago. And now, this year, it is clear just how far down the path of uncertainty this has taken us.

  • Protesters have been pepper sprayed for simply sitting on a sidewalk.
  • An American citizen in another nation, one who we say was a terrorist, was killed on an order from the President of the United States.
  • The United States Congress and Senate passed a bill that may allow for the arrest of American citizens–on the homeland–and indefinite detention without charges… A few stood up to oppose. Most didn’t. And most Americans didn’t even know that Congress had that provision in the defense bill.
  • Stories of overreaching cops.. police arresting those who videotape arrests.. police pepper spraying or tasing senior citizens.. drone attacks in nations that didn’t declare war on us..
Oh yes, indeed… what a rabbit hole we have placed ourselves in.

The term ‘slippery slope’ is heavily used, if not overused. But what other term truly could describe the place we find ourselves? The slippery slope….. where cops in black uniforms don’t patrol neighborhoods on foot but instead bust doors down after the drone in the sky says criminal activity may be taking place. Warrants? Nah… we have the drone now. The mighty eye in the sky.. 

It’s not a bird. 
It’s not a plane.
It’s the future… slyly flying..