I have a different strategy. It is not for everyone, but I believe it is honest and politically safe. Let us take away the most powerful weapon the terrorists have: Fear. Be less afraid of terrorism. Make it your personal project not to fear terrorism, and not to let the fear that remains influence your life. Don’t panic over newspaper headlines. Don’t cancel your vacation because of terror alerts. Don’t hold back your plane because there are some Arabs on it. Don’t support hasty laws and careless political decisions, simple because we “have to do something”.
Accept that there is a threat, but don’t exaggerate it. Don’t trust your instinct to guide you, our instincts are notoriously bad at risk assessment, use reason and facts instead. When people are afraid of flying, they remind themselves that they’re much more likely to die in their car on the way to the airport than on the plane itself. Do the same with terrorism. Fight your fears with facts. I don’t believe in denial, and it is not denial to say that terrorism is one of the smallest threats that any of us face. It is simple irrational to fear terrorism more than traffic.
When you have reduced your fear to a rational level as much as you can, face what remains of it with open eyes. Don’t let the fear influence your behavior, except after careful thought. Life is full of risks, and terrorism is no different from all the others. So there’s a tiny risk you might die today. That’s no excuse to act like a fool or a coward. Death is a part of life.
Dishonor, stupidity, and cowardice are part of life, too. But who in his right mind wants to live that way? Perhaps that’s the key question: “who in their right mind?
Expect to hear this theme come up once more in the 2008 elections, especially if John Kerry jumps off the cliff again. Meanwhile, remember:
God grant us the courage to change the things we can…
9 comments:
The risk of terrorism will always be there, until they choose to remove it. The chaps got a bad case of we are powerless liberalism, but at least hes got a stiff upper lip.
Of course if he were really resolute he could do something about it, and no fear. Instead of doing nothing, counseling others to do nothing, no fear. A true blue liberal sort of fellow, apparently no longer able to deny that terror exists, even no longer able to deny that they will do him ill despite his soft, fuzzy and harmless nature, but by wishing really hard, no fear, we can ignore their existance and carry on as if they didn't exist, even though they do, they do.
Guy should probably change his name from Bear Strong to Poodle Resolute or something.
OT Good morning Dymphna, aren't you are up dreadfully early?
Yes, I am up early and it is dreadful. The Baron is away overnight at a PJ Media schoomzer, so I woke before light...and if blooger weren't so bloody difficult, I'd have been back to bed long ago.
However, I shall await the Baron's programmer expertise to figure out why this post has "read more" when I didn't put the tags in for it.
And yes, "Bear Strong" is a bite for someone who would write such mealy-mouthed prose. Do you suppose they've developed some sort of mind-ray machine and he happened to walk thru it?
Don't worry about the boogyman under your bed, little Cubby Bear, just grab your blanky and keep sucking your thumb.
Sheesh.
Thanks for posting dymphna.
check out this video at youtube, re: Popes speech and Byzantine called "context"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgiFvmGRdDQ&eurl=
The links to all of Fjordman's posts are on the sidebar; the Baron just redid our template. The one you want, on feminism, is here.
And what is frightening is the Bjorn Staerk is considered a righty by Norwegian standards -- and even he accepts surrender and dhimmitude.
And he's been rather apologetic over the years about European anti-Semitism. He isn't himself per se, but it seems like everyone else he knows hates Jews and he has to rationalize it somehow or he couldn't function in Norwegian society.
phanarath:
Denmark has 200,000+ Islamofascists and 7,0000 Jews. Further, being in Europe, many Danes have probably been so brainwashed by multiculturalism (Europeans can't make any judgments about Muslims, now can they?) and by venomous anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hatred in the greater Euro media, that this time, they will likely not step in to defend the Jews.
And that is not just my opinion; it is expressed in Bruce Bawer's book "While Europe Slept" by two Danish writers, who are a bit contrary to the political correctness of most European writers - Lars Hedegaard and Helle Brix.
It's over for the Jews in Europe. They need to get out, or frankly, they will be slaughtered -- by enraged Islamofascist mobs, aided and abetted by EU Bureaucrats and a virulently anti-Semitic media, that will not only overlook these crimes, but will blame it on the Jews. And I have little doubt that the final eradication of Jews in Europe will be a cause for celebration among many Europeans, and certainly for most of the elites.
And that will not even stop the hatred of Jews in Europe. One need only look at the rabid anti-semitism in many countries with few or no Jews to see that the hatred does not stop even when a country becomes Judenrein. Then they just turn the blame to foreign Jews -- the evil Zionists in Israel, the evil neocons in America, and even to hidden Jews.
Nelson Ascher was right. Europe and the Islamofascists deserve each other. 1 million Jews can get out of Europe. 450 million Europeans can't. They have allowed their hatred of Jews blind them to the growing Islamofascist terrorist menace that has been growing on their continent for 40 years. Such terrorism was always OK to Europe, since it was only to kill lowly Jews; it never occurred to Europeans, especially the elites, that this hatred would be turned against them someday.
Again, as Nelson Ascher said recently in Pajamas Media "Anti-Semitism is the tool that the Islamofascists have given Europe to allow it to commit suicide"
Phanrath:
Jews can't worry about pleasant surprises from Europeans.
Based on the last 2000 years, all we can expect is irrational, never-ending hatred and genocide. Europe is simply incapable of anything else.
You impress me as a good and moral person. But you are in a minority in Europe. And that minority is getting smaller all the time -- as a result of political brainwashing by the media and by demographics.
I do not know your personal situation, but I think if you care for your future (and your family's future, if you have one) you should seriously consider emigrating to the USA, Australia, or (English-speaking) Canada. Do it now, before Europe goes completely to hell and you have to fight with millions of others to find a home in the Anglosphere.
Phanrath:
Luther was among the most rabid Jewhaters in the history of Christian clergy. His screed "The Jews and their Lies" written in 1543 could easily have been written by Goebbels or by someone in the Islamonazi Middle East today.
The legacy of the hatred against Jews in Norway and Sweden as a result of Luther is overwhelming.
Norway did not allow Jews until 1851. Sweden did not allow Jews until 1774. Neither country has EVER allowed shechita - the kosher slaughter of meat, because of the supposed cruelty to animals. Apparently, Scandinavians think that animals have more rights than Jews do.
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