Posthuman Blues

Resisting the Politics of Fear (by John Mack)

"Worst of all perhaps is what the politics of fear has done to our values as a people. Poet Michael Blumenthal, returning to the United States last month after three years living in Europe, found here 'a frightened and frightening nation, a nation filled not with generosity and humanity and decency and charity,' a nation 'that seems unable to find any deeper reason for its patriotism than a profound, and cynically manipulated atmosphere of anxiety and fear.' And former assistant to President John F. Kennedy, Theodore Sorenson, in a commencement speech in Nebraska last May warned of the damage being done to the 'very heart and soul of this country' as it moves 'toward a mean-spirited mediocrity in place of a noble beacon.'"