Nicely said Sodaiho!

Good article sodaiho. but remember fear is G-ds way of letting you know you are still alive.

Of explaining fear, St.Thomas Aquinas rules!

 "The really dangerous enemies of man's freedom come from within himself. They are fear, concupiscence, and ignorance.

Opposed to daring is fear. Fear is the movement of flight in the in the appetite in the face of an impending evil that seems irresistible. Fear arises when danger is at hand. Men seldom fear dangers that are far in the future. When death seems far away men seldom fear death or God's anger. When danger is just around the corner, then fear seeks to escape it.

Fear wears many faces in human life. In a man who fears work, it is laziness. In a man who fears future disgrace, it is shamefacedness. In a man who fears present disgrace, it is shame. In the man who faces an evil whose extent and magnitude seem immeasurable, fear appears as amazement. In a man faced with a sudden danger, we find stupor--a paralysis of his whole being. When a man fears a future misfortune which he cannot foresee, his fear is called anxiety.

The basic cause of fear is love of good. A man fears something becasue it will deprive him of some good. A second cause of fear is a man's feeling or conviction that he is unable to cope with danger.

The first effect of fear is a paralysis of man's power to act. One confronted by a rattlesnake is frozen with fear. This is the great evil of fear...that it prevents man from acting for his own good. Sometimes, when danger is far off, fear will move a man to seek advice of others. When the advice is sought from prudent and courageious men, this effect of fear is good. But fearful men are not good advisors of other fearful men. 

First: Well said Sodaiho. But i dont think it is artificial canopy... people were and still are afraid.

Second: If we keep in mind that all of our fear started after 9/11, one wonders how others react after decades-long of 9/11's. None of us wonders about that. It just came to me when i read your article.

Imagine the extent of fear for people who are under constant threat from powers beyond their control and the reason for the 9/11's raining on them for decades is beyond their understanding .... 

knowing how much we fear after one 9/11, is it possible for us to even imagine the extent of their fear?

if one 9/11 can produce that kind of fear in us ... what kind of fear would they have in their hearts and minds ....

it doesnt matter whether we or our cousins somewhere else rained the multitudes of 9/11's on them.... we all look the same to those who experienced those decades-long 9/11's.

may be if we think about that we can now understand what kind of brain-malfunction produced our 9/11. brains acting like reptiles .....

thanks Sodaiho .... the way you expressed it made me think of that point ....

With that said, the question is: would this experience of ours make us think many times before we support any unjustified wars or unfair policies?

I hope so.  but if the majority of us dont think of that we will never hold that support.

It was FDR.  Right time period, wrong side of the pond.

I tend to agree with TA, I too think it is not an "artificial canopy of fear" that we experience.  

And,  if this is a dig against Bush, you need to be reminded that( whether you agree or not with Congress approved pre-emptive strike in Iraq), the simple fact is we have not been struck since 9/11 on our homeland. The evil doers in Iran, Iraq, Korea, and China, etc. may not like President GWB,  but they sure respect and fear his resolve. Respect, therefore, is one way to handle fear, wouldn't you agree? 

Sen. Biden said that Obama as President will be tested...time may tell what he meant by that.  Do you think the dictators in these countries I've mentioned respect or fear Obama? I sure don't.

Obama is not worthy of respect. A man who approves infanticide and promises to advance medical terrorism against the innocent unborn sure isn't going to protect the rest of us.

THINKALOUD POSTS:

I'd answer the justice and thus morality of any war is debatable. War is not intrinsically evil, abortion always is.

I have a bumper sticker, it simply reads, "War is Not Pro-Life."   While I really do not want this thread to degenerate into an abortion argument, I do believe it is important to use a degree of discernment. Lula says she cannot respect a man who supports infanticide.  Hyperbole, of course. But she can support a war.  Both end in killing of living tissue. I wonder about this.

Killing should only be one side of an arguement: the right to defend oneself, the right to privacy, the right to not have government in our crotches or our bedrooms, these are issues on the other side.

For example: I support abortion rights, but not abortion; I support our right to defend ourselves, but not to kill in order to do it. While it might appears these statements are nonsensical to the black and whit thinker, they are actually challenges to think our way through a moral or ethical issue.  We should be challenged to consistently look for non-lethal alternatives.

Be well. 

Yes, of course...however there is something to be said for self-defense.

This is silly....if someone is attacking you with the intention of killing you, by the time you "think your way through the moral or ethical issue", you could be dead.

Yes, both are evil.  That people are in a state of war means they have moved away from the rational into the irrational, in my opinion, or at the very least, moved from love to hate.  

no Lula is quite right.  To do otherwise would be hypocritical.  She's doing and following her heart and her mind and her soul while too many out there are following their pocketbooks, their pride and their sense of belonging to the world and all it has to offer.

To many, too late will figure out one day they were walking thru doors that led to nowhere but sorrow. 

Why label me? but since you do....here's my reasoning why placing the dignity of human life in all its stages first in consideration is so important.

If a candidate who openly supported terrorism asked you for your vote, would you say, " I disagree with you on terrorism, but where do you stand on other issues?" I doubt it. In fact, if a terrorist presented him/her self for your vote, you would immediately know that such a position disqualifies him from public office no matter how good he/she was on other issues. In other words, the horror of acts of terrorism dwarfs whatever good might be found in the candidate's plan for the economy, education, health care, etc.  

So why do so many say even though this candidate favors abortion.....I disagree, but I'm voting for this person anyway becasue she/he has good ideas on health care, the economy, or some other issues? This position makes no sense whatsoever, unless one is completely blind to the violence of abortion, see what abortion looks like, or read descriptions from the abortionists themselves, for if you did you would be tramatized.

I read a story about a police call that some boys were throwing "stones" off a bridge. When the policemen got to the scene and asked the boys what they were throwing, the boys told them "little people" and proceeded to show them a bag full of aborted babies they had found in a dumpster at the mall. The policemen not only wept but they vomited as well.

The evidence is clear...abortion is the taking of a most innocent human life...and no one, but no one, not you, not me, not Supreme Court jusctices, not any legislative body has the authority to do that...in fact, God's commands otherwise,  "Thou shalt not kill."

So, abortion is no less violent than terrorism. Any candidate who says abortion should be kept legal disqualifies him/herself from public office and service. For me it's simple...find out where they stand on the intrinsic dignity of human life. We need look no further or pay attention to what candidates say on other issues, for support for abortion for us to decide not to vote or support such a person. Public servants need to be able to tell the difference between serving the public and killing the public.

Pope JPaul II put it this way..."Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights--for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to education, is false and illusionary if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and condition for all the other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination."

"False and illusionary" are strong and clear words that call for our further reflection. I stand for health care for all, especiallyy children, and so far, so good. But as soon as you say that a procedure that tears the arms and legs off little unborn babies is part of your "health care" program, then your understanding of the term "Health care" is obviously different from the actual meaning of the words. In short, you lose credibility. Your claim to health care is "illusionary". It sounds good, but is in fact destructive, becasue it masks an act of violence.

Anyway, it's very easy to get confused by all the arguments in an election year....but if you start by asking where does the candidate stand on abortion, you can eliminate a lot of other questions.  

Pope Benedict XVI has taught without ambiguity that the taking of innocent life preempts all other moral and social issues.

When it comes to understanding who to place my confidence, respect and vote, what more do I need than knowing and following God's commandment and the constant teachings of the Catholic Church?

You are mistaken TA.

Unfortunately, way too many women are "forced" to have an abortion...at least one has written about it here on JU....and KFC recently blogged about parents who were attempting to literally force their daughter to have one.

In many instances, the pregnant mother wants to have the baby but the boyfriend, the husband, the one time stand, in other words, the one who impregnated her says no way. I've read stories of young girls in the abortion clinic and right up until the very last moment didn't want the abortion, but was forced to go through with it.

Relate this to killing by abortion and you'll be saying something.

KFC POSTS:

SoDaiho,

Here, KFC spoke a pearl of wisdom and in doing so exhibits her faith and hope in action....it's called love of neighbor...love and forgiveness of enemies. Our souls demand the truth however hard. A prolific Catholic writer wrote, "Hope is the active conviction that every soul  is worth trying to save at any cost in suffering.

What's more, by now, we should have come to the understanding that fear can be a good thing....fear of Almighty God is a most wonderful thing.