I think we fear death--suddenly--just zooming like a "missile" into an ordinary day. One doesn't have that same sense when smoking a cigarette (from what I can tell--I don't smoke)--its an accumulated risk, and one can deny it. Or when driving a car, one can easily maintain the illusion of total control. But when the "ordinary" might kill you--when the air might contain something lethal, or an airpline might turn into a missile, or an innocuous white powder might be carrying an infectious agent, there is a sense that no place is safe. So it's not just "death" that people fear, but the loss of control, and the transformation of the benignly ordinary into the terrifyingly lethal. I agree w you about mass vaccination--some gulf war vets think the vaccines damaged their immune systems.
I guess you can't blame people for trying to take action to regain a sense of control, whether it's cleaning out their closets or buying a gas mask. And making profits from 'war' is as old as can be, so I guess its part of the old entrepreneurial spirit that we revere in America. But, I mean, if you buy expensive freeze dried food instead of stocking up on a few cans of Goya beans, you have to realize it would only be necessary if you were going to be starving for years! <g> I mean, canned food lasts a year. |
