Sunday Quote Blogging

"It seemed peculiar. Living under a cloud of fear like this robs a child of his spirit. It's one thing to be afraid when someone's holding a shotgun on you, but it's another thing to be afraid of something that's just not quite real. There were a lot of folks around who took this threat seriously, though, and it rubbed off on you. It was easy to become a victim of their strange fantasy."
~ Bob Dylan
"Chronicles" (autobiography)

Dylan is referring to the McCarthyism era of American history following WW2. Describing the fear of Communism, the fear of Russians that was pumped into him as an elementary school student. We'd like to think that things have changed since then. But have they really? Not so much in my opinion. The name has changed - now it's "Terrorism" in place of "Communism" - but the pumping of fear is still running rampid. It seems as though you can't turn on the TV, radio, open a newspaper, or even just drive down the road without being bombarded with a culture of fear that America has embraced.