Fear? Biggie size it, please.

As I was doing some work on my computer this morning, a movie caught my eye on the TV. I was watching FILMNET, which is a 24/7 movie channel in Greece, that is one of only three movie services in the world that has deals with all of the major Hollywood studios. They boast that they premiere a new movie every day. The one that I was watching at the time was “Goodnight and Good Luck”. It is amazing because it was set in the 1950s but the relevance with the present day was striking. The move is about Ed Murrow and I suggest you go watch it.

Why is this movie relevant to present day?

Ed Murrow is widely regarded as one of the most respected journalists of all time. He spoke out against Joseph McCarthy’s fear-mongering which utilized communism as the pretense for witch hunts. Obviously the parallel I am trying to draw to present day is the fear-mongering with terrorism. Even in the movie, they discuss the issues of holding individuals “for being a threat” without any real charges, the crumbling of civil liberties on the basis of this fear, and also the problem with using the “you are either with me or against me” argument.

Is this all striking a bell for you guys?

The biggest fear mongering television ad of all time must go to the “Daisy Girl” political ad by Lyndon Johnson. This is pretty much how it went (courtesy wikipedia):

The advertisement begins with a little girl standing in a meadow with chirping birds, picking the petals of a daisy while counting each petal slowly. (Because she does not know her numbers perfectly, she repeats some and says others in the wrong order, all of which adds to her childish appeal.) When she reaches "9", an ominous-sounding male voice is then heard counting down a missile launch, and as the girl's eyes turn toward something she sees in the sky, the camera zooms in until her pupil fills the screen, blacking it out. When the countdown reaches zero, the blackness is replaced by the flash and mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion.

As the firestorm rages, a voiceover from Johnson states, "These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die." Another voiceover (sportscaster Chris Schenkel) then says, "Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."

The recently released television advertisement by the Republican National Committee quoting "Osama Bin Laden," echoes the exact same line as Johnson's ad: "These are the stakes!" Additionally, the only audio in the commercial is the sound of a ticking clock that gradually gets louder and louder, until the image of a bomb exploding appears.

Could we have any more obvious fear-mongering? Well, I guess this IS the same presidential party where Rudy Giuliani is a leading “top tier candidate”.