For years, we had story after story about what the Soviet Union was doing and the threat of Communism. We yelled … the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming! … Scared the shit out of a whole bunch of ordinary Americans. The name of the conflict and tension that existed between the Soviet Union and its satellites, and the Western World led by the United States after World War II, was called the Cold War; and it lasted 50 years or more.
According to Wikipedia, “Throughout this period, the conflict was expressed through military coalitions, espionage, weapons development, invasions, propaganda, and competitive technological development, which included the space race. The conflict included costly defense spending, a massive conventional and nuclear arms race, and numerous proxy wars; the two superpowers never fought one another directly.”
Though the term Axis of Evil was coined by U.S. President George W. Bush, I believe that what one sees as Axis of evil shift throughout history; and the Soviet Union and its satellites were probably considered [by us] the Axis of some kind of evil during the Cold War. I won’t go into the specifics of the Cold War; you can read the details on Wikipedia or go to the library.
George Orwell, in an essay entitled “You and the Atomic Bomb” [published Oct. 19, 1945] called the Cold War, “the ideological confrontation between the Soviet Union and the western powers”.
I like that phrase because I believe ideological differences are at the heart of every major dispute.
What I'm getting at, ladies and gentlemen, is there have always been ideological differences; and we, as citizens of the world and the United States, have always lived under the threat of war, be it internal or external. If you look at the many civil wars, pacts [and broken pacts], treaties [and broken treaties], alliances [and broken alliances] and who is engaged in disputes and with whom, you would simply be in a perpetual state of anxiety ... which we indeed are.
What usually occurs when you are in a state of anxiety is that you look for the source of that anxiety and fixate on it.
The North Koreans are anxious about nearly everybody. South Korea is fixated on North Korea. The United States is fixated on the so-called “War on Terrorism”; Iran is in a state of political upheaval and its anxiety-ridden people are fixated on their own government, while the Iranian government is in denial and fixated on who they see is the source of their anxiety, the United States and Great Britain. Russia and China have their own anxiety to deal with, and personally, I don’t know how Japan gets through the day with its many disputes.
When there is anxiety, there is no trust and the anxious become paranoid.
So where are we with all these governments in a state of anxiety and its citizens in a state of anxiety? What will be the consequences?
Can the citizens of the world and their governments find something constructive to fixate on to ease their anxiety? How about a “GREEN ECONOMY”? How about fixating (focusing) on relieving hunger and human suffering and pain?
How about governments stop their human rights and civil rights violations to help ease the anxieties of its people? How about open communication between governments and citizens; and how about government transparency?
How about fixating (focusing) on ways to attain peace? Yeah, … how about doing just that?
According to Wikipedia, “Throughout this period, the conflict was expressed through military coalitions, espionage, weapons development, invasions, propaganda, and competitive technological development, which included the space race. The conflict included costly defense spending, a massive conventional and nuclear arms race, and numerous proxy wars; the two superpowers never fought one another directly.”
Though the term Axis of Evil was coined by U.S. President George W. Bush, I believe that what one sees as Axis of evil shift throughout history; and the Soviet Union and its satellites were probably considered [by us] the Axis of some kind of evil during the Cold War. I won’t go into the specifics of the Cold War; you can read the details on Wikipedia or go to the library.
George Orwell, in an essay entitled “You and the Atomic Bomb” [published Oct. 19, 1945] called the Cold War, “the ideological confrontation between the Soviet Union and the western powers”.
I like that phrase because I believe ideological differences are at the heart of every major dispute.
What I'm getting at, ladies and gentlemen, is there have always been ideological differences; and we, as citizens of the world and the United States, have always lived under the threat of war, be it internal or external. If you look at the many civil wars, pacts [and broken pacts], treaties [and broken treaties], alliances [and broken alliances] and who is engaged in disputes and with whom, you would simply be in a perpetual state of anxiety ... which we indeed are.
What usually occurs when you are in a state of anxiety is that you look for the source of that anxiety and fixate on it.
The North Koreans are anxious about nearly everybody. South Korea is fixated on North Korea. The United States is fixated on the so-called “War on Terrorism”; Iran is in a state of political upheaval and its anxiety-ridden people are fixated on their own government, while the Iranian government is in denial and fixated on who they see is the source of their anxiety, the United States and Great Britain. Russia and China have their own anxiety to deal with, and personally, I don’t know how Japan gets through the day with its many disputes.
When there is anxiety, there is no trust and the anxious become paranoid.
So where are we with all these governments in a state of anxiety and its citizens in a state of anxiety? What will be the consequences?
Can the citizens of the world and their governments find something constructive to fixate on to ease their anxiety? How about a “GREEN ECONOMY”? How about fixating (focusing) on relieving hunger and human suffering and pain?
How about governments stop their human rights and civil rights violations to help ease the anxieties of its people? How about open communication between governments and citizens; and how about government transparency?
How about fixating (focusing) on ways to attain peace? Yeah, … how about doing just that?
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