“Be afraid — be very, very afraid!”
— America’s new national motto?
If I were still a drinker — which I’m not — and I went into a liquor store to buy a case of Bud or a pint of Jack, starting July 1 in Indiana I would have to present my ID to prove I’m at least 21.
Really. I’m serious. No joke. The state of Indiana in its infinite wisdom has decided that the possibility of someone under 21 years of age getting hold of and consuming booze is such a threat to Civilization As We Know It that anyone who buys package liquor to take out will soon have to flash proof of age.
Now, I’m 65 years old. Got the gray hair, wrinkles, bifocals, middle-aged spread to prove it. Ray Charles could see that I’m way, WAY over 21. But that’s not good enough for the learned sachems who run our state. No, we’ve ALL got to prove we’re not trying to Consume Alcohol While Under the Legal Age. The state is broke, schools are having to lay off teachers, Indiana won’t be able to fund the Medicaid portion of our new ObamaCare plan — but, by God, first things first! We’ve got to stop those underage guzzlers!
Of course, if you read my columns regularly you may recall that, some time back, I wrote one in which I said I think the minimum 21 drinking age is absurd, since most countries in this world allow drinking at age 18. I still feel that way. But it’s obvious the state doesn’t agree with me. How they think that carding everyone is going to keep teens from getting hold of booze, when nothing else has, I don’t know. But, hey, it’ll look good to the church people and the MADD members at election time!
This is not just an isolated thing, though. In this country, we seem to have become chicken-hearted scared of everything. And one big reason we have is, many advertisers WANT us to be afraid.
Look at the ridiculous commercials for that home-security company that used to be Brink’s. Anyone who watches TV regularly will be familiar with the scenario: A young, attractive woman interacts with someone, then enters her house, sets the home-security button (in one commercial, this is at noon on a bright, sunny day!) and three seconds later some crazed, homicidal rapist maniac crashes through the door, setting off the alarm. Within about two more seconds her phone starts ringing and, sure enough, it’s the guy from the security company asking if anything’s wrong, and promising to send help “at once.” Yeah — lots of luck, toots. And why is the “evil guy” who crashes through the door, always White? Has this company checked our violent crime statistics lately?
These commercials are obviously designed to make women scared to death to be at home alone without the services of the (expensive) home-security company. Why, there’s probably an Evil White Guy standing just outside your front door right now, poised to break in and subject you to A Fate Worse Than Death, as they used to call it in hokey old movies.
Another example is your home computer. Why, of course you have all your pertinent information — Social Security number, bank account number, credit card information, yadda, yadda, on there, and absolutely nowhere else! If you don’t buy our (expensive) on-line back-up service, and that Evil White Guy steals your home computer after ravishing you, then you’ll be doubly damned: All your personal information will be gone, irretrievably, too, along with your virtue!
Fox News does its part to feed this climate of fear, especially on the part of women whom it seems our society wants to feel that they’re terrible vulnerable to all sorts of awful things and people, every minute of the day, if they don’t buy the sponsor’s product. Or, in the case of Fox, just by being female.
Year in and year out, U.S. crime statistics show that about 75 percent of all homicide victims are males. But you’d never know that from watching Fox. The network — “fair and balanced” — seems to salivate with glee when it can find a story about some young, beautiful co-ed (or high school student; or model; or whatever) who has disappeared, been found murdered, or both. A photo of the young woman is always shown, and she usually looks like a movie star (notice that Fox isn’t interested if a plain or homely girl goes missing or is found dead?) And it’s very, very rare for Fox to show any interest at all about a missing male, or one who turns up murdered. Their attitude seems to be, “Who cares if some guy is gone, or dead? Besides, if he’s missing, he probably skipped out because of embarrassing financial problems.”
Last but not least, if you go on YouTube frequently as I do, you’ll notice that on certain types of videos, someone always posts a comment to the effect of, “Please delete this video at once! What if” (fill in the blank) “were to see it?!” So a three-minute video on YouTube can harm someone? Just like the Evil White Guy crashing through the door, huh?
I think you see what I mean if you’ve read this far. This nation seems to be suffering from what a character in the 1951 film version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” referred to. Ebenezer Scrooge’s fiancee, when she is breaking up with him because of his avaricious pursuit of wealth at the sacrifice of all else, including their love, says to him, “You fear the world too much.”
Indeed. What if some teenager should drink a beer when he’s underage? What if some Evil White Guy should break through the front door (happens every day, right?) What if your hard drive crashed and you “lost everything”? What if you’re young, female and attractive, and you’re afraid to step out on the street for fear you’ll “go missing”? What if (fill in the blank) were to see a short video on YouTube?
What if, what if, what if. What if we just stopped worrying about so many things? What if, while exercising sensible prudence, we tried to enjoy life to the fullest extent possible, since, as people have said for years, it’s “too short.”
What if we stopped fearing the world so much?
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