Cue the Fear

by patricia ernest

www.OpEdNews.com

Have we been hypnotized?  Perhaps we have.

You know the routine.  The hypnotist puts his subject under and then tells them when he snaps his fingers they will bark like a dog.  He then brings his subject back to consciousness and the subject appears normal until the hypnotist snaps his fingers.  The subject, although completely conscious, obeys the cue and barks like a dog.  The suggestion or command remains in the conscious mind and triggers a response.

On September 11, 2001, we were all put under hypnosis.  While we were unconscious and aware of nothing but fear, the hypnotist gave us a command.  He told us that from that time forward whenever the phrase "terrorist attack" was uttered, we would fall back into the fear trance and huddle under the safety of the government.  Then the hypnotist brought us back to consciousness and told us to go about our regular business, go shopping and live a normal life.  He knew he could control us and make us "bark" anytime he wanted us to.  He would just snap their fingers via uttering the phrase and we would obey his command.  Looks like it's working too, because each time we read or hear that phrase we forget everything else that is going on in the world.  We become deaf and blind to important issues, and we huddle in fear.

When the economy is tanking, it's easy for the government to whisper the phrase and immediately the country goes deaf and blind as they huddle.  The same thing happened after the Democratic convention when Sen. Kerry was in the limelight.  They said the phrase, snapped their fingers and the lights went out.  The war still rages in Iraq just as it did before the handover, and it isn't advantageous to this administration if we pay attention.  So snap, the phrase is uttered and we no longer pay attention to the war.  Anytime things are looking bad for bush, the phrase is spoken, the fingers snapped, and we stop looking for anything except a place to huddle.

We have been programmed to be afraid on cue.  We are constantly reminded that another attack could occur.   And of course it could, but what the hell are we to do?  Should we knuckle under to the hypnotist?  Should we forever live under his spell?  Maybe it's time to stop obeying the command that has been surreptitiously placed in our innocent heads.  Let's do a little hypnotizing of our own.  Let's relax and put ourselves under our own spell, the spell that says whenever the phrase "terrorist attack" is uttered we will not be muted.  We will instead demand to know why the warning was given.  Let's tell ourselves that the next time we hear the phrase that is meant to make us obey, we will resist the temptation.  We won't run and huddle blindly but instead we'll stop and focus on what is really happening, rather than on the suggestion of what could happen.  We won't turn a deaf ear and we will insist the lights stay on.  We will demand illumination so that we can see what we want to see, not what we are told to look out for.   Let's take back control of our senses and our emotions.  When someone plays with your head it becomes a head game.  We have had no say in the rules of this head game, so let's stop playing.