How ironic that "Chicken Little" is the #1 movie this weekend. We are a Chicken Little Nation, allowing ourselves to be consumed by fear of one thing or another.
We're constantly bombarded by scare-tactic warnings and announcements that make the whole Y2K panic seem quaint.
A few years ago it was SARS, now it's Avian Flu. So you better watch what you eat -- poisoned poultry, mad cow beef, mercury-laden fish -- and no matter what you eat, you're going to be obese and die.
Your identity will be stolen, your computer infected by a virus, and your cell phone will give you brain cancer (when it's not blowing up the pump at the gas station).
Don't stay inside, where your house is full of CO2 and radon. Don't go outside, where you'll be bitten by a mosquito carrying West Nile Virus.
So get back in the house, put duct tape on the windows, then hide in the basement in case Mother Nature's whipping up another tornado. Unless, of course, it's time for the New Madrid fault to do its thing and cause an earthquake to kill us all.
FDR was right. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
If only it could be like the old days, when all we had to worry about was a nuclear missile attack from Russia -- and the heartbreak of psoriasis.Labels: columns