Discourse on politics, life, and fear...

This week’s discussion will be a different; it will be on a topic that literally rules the world: fear. Fear plays a major role in my life, in your life, and certainly in the political life of Washington, D.C.

The US currently has about 10,000 nuclear warheads in arsenal. Maintaining these warheads are very costly and cost the taxpayer roughly $30 billion. But, out of fear, and to strike fear into others, we hold onto nuclear weapons, even though they are extremely costly (I don’t think we will ever use one again, but the threat of having enough of them to blow the Earth into smithereens is what we are after).

Presidents and Congress use fear to persuade public opinion and ram policy through the process and into law, or to stop legislation from being pushed. Health Care is example A, B, and C here. This also applies to much of the New Deal, the Patriot Act, and Obama’s proposed financial regulations.

Both Democrats and Republicans fear the Tea Party movement. Democrats hide their fear by throwing completely fictitious statements out there in an attempt to discredit the movement. See Keith Olbermann constantly calling the Tea Party Movement “racist” (even though a significant amount of video evidence is out there showing a racially diverse populace inside the Tea Party movement). Or listen to Jon Stewart imply that Tea Partiers are simply stupid white trash (although a recent NY Times survey found that Tea Partiers are better educated and more prosperous than most Americans). And Republicans are scared to death as well. Tea Partiers are generally more libertarian than the GOP and thus more truly conservative, especially on fiscal policy. They champion Ron and Rand Paul, while the GOP discredits the Pauls at all times. Tea Partiers are realizing that W., while perhaps a likable guy, wasn’t a true hero of conservatism, and thus they are changing their mindset from a GOP vote to an independent vote. They hate Michael Steele almost as equally as Obama.

Fear is also playing a large role in my life recently, with the fear of “not knowing what I’m going to do” or “where I’m going to be”. I have fears about not doing well enough on the GRE to get into a great school. I have fears about choosing the right place to continue schooling. I have fears about relationships, friendships, and family. And I have an insane fear of being “unexceptional”. We right-brained individuals don’t want to fit into the accountant/lawyer/doctor mold. We all want to be exceptional.

But lately I have been reminded of an old Argentinean poem (which for the life of me I can’t find on the internet) about a woman’s fear of walking outside in the rain without rain boots, because she might get sick or something akin to that. But when she gets outside, the splash of water against her skin is exhilarating, and the reward of feeling great outside in the rain was more than worth the risk of going outside without rain boots. Come to think of it, that may not be the correct ending either; the details are pretty fuzzy, it was a long time ago I heard this poem, haha.

It doesn’t matter though- the point is… the greatest rewards in life absolutely come with the greatest risks. If you don’t risk embarrassment or failure, you won’t receive your exhilarating rewards.

Peace and love,
Noel