Stopping points

In times of escalating fear, at what point does reversal become possible? How do we turn back the tide between paranoia, fear, and suspicion. On surveillance, spying, snooping, and finger pointing. How do we relax as a society? How do come down from treating LED cartoon characters like bombs and artists like terrorists. Do we exhale and come to the collective realization that living is no more dangerous than it has ever been? Or do we continue to spy on our neighbors, report our friends, lock away our relatives, and dispose of our enemies, so that life fits nicely into a small window of consumer culture and prime time TV, and remains as dangerous as it has always been.

Being alive is a risk. But it's not a terrible risk. It can be worthwhile if we have space to play in. We're all dying, so why are we so afraid of being killed all the time? I would rather my neighbor blow up the entire block in an attempt to produce a cleaner car engine or a water powered electric generator, or that my friends and family may express themselves in the most perverse, lurid, and offensive ways than they be sent away for spooking the cows. EVERYONE does things that would scare the hell out of someone else. EVERYONE. Some people just don't have the fingers pointing at them. Get on with life. You will find that it becomes much more safe when you stop obsessing about security.