"I'll give you something to be worried about." .Listening, reading, watching the news reports, you would think the pandemic is peaking as we speak. Gosh - get a grip. (Get it - grip?)
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After all the dire predictions on the economy, do you ever stop and think someone just might want a general panic?
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I found the following on Western Confucian:
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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - H.L. Mencken
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I agree with Joshua's statement, "I'm worried not about swine flu, mind you, but about those who are stoking fears about it." - The Practical Politics of Swine Flu
We were discussing the swine flu scare at work today. We had heard that there were "40 new cases" of swine flu today in the USA. One of my coworkers said, "How many people had heart attacks today, or how many were diagnosed with cancer? It's probably a lot more than 40." For that matter, there are probably more than 40 who came down with regular A or B-strain flu. If I had to choose between swine flu or cancer, I think I would take my chances with flu. It's just that the other stuff isn't news, we are used to hearing about it.
ReplyDeleteI'm worried not about terrorist attacks, mind you, but about those who are stoking fears about it.
ReplyDeleteI'm worried not about "radical Islam," mind you, but about those who are stoking fears about it.
I'm worried not about "upcoming Christian persecution," mind you, but about those who are stoking fears about it.
;-)
Michael Crichton's novel "State of Fear" had this theme. I was afraid to read it at first.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a lady at one of my dinner parties who asked if I was worried about radon in my house (at a dinner party??)
ReplyDeleteAfter a minute of stunned silence I told her, "Yea, every time I light a cigarette I worry about the radon in my house."
Adrienne - LOL! One of my neighbors is an actor from the Guthrie and his wife found out I paint in my basememnt. She came over to talk to me, and I was smoking a cigarette as she told me her mother died because of radon poisoning - her mother did crafts in the basement.
ReplyDeleteI'm so scared.
Amen on the truth about keep the populace alarmed. We were just talking about this very topic today. The media seems full of excitement junkies who make the lates winter rain with a few gusts of wind into THE Storm of the Year, etc. Everything with them is FRANTIC. You know one of the sympotms of a child raised in a dysfunctional is the desperste constant need for excitement, to thrive on chaos. If we are always distracted by excitement and adrenalined by chaos we cannot be still and quiet...that's where we ecounter the real pain and loss. Maybe the collective media-soul is in agony over the abandonment of God and must distratc itself at all costs to drown out that ever-persistent divine whisper within.
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