Scare Tactics

The government has been on a relentless pursuit of scaring the nation into submission for the past few weeks now. Today we are told that a flu pandemic could be imminent and that we must begin preparing. Sure. That makes sense, although we should be well prepared by now as it's been so long since the last one.

Of course, for the past few days we have also been hearing so much about the threat of terrorism to the nation. Charles Clarke and his new chum, the new chief of the Met, Sir Ian Blair has been trying to scare the nation shitless for some time now over the "forthcoming" General Election.

Add to that the fact that we're constantly being told from all sides that violent crime is "out of control", and especially that gun crime, or even a "gun culture" is going to be the death of many. And woe betide you if you even so much as sneeze on a burglar entering your house!

Then those damn rebellious youth are, surprise surprise... "out of control" too. They're mugging old ladies, joyriding, binge drinking, sexually infecting and drug taking more than ever. Watch out, the next time you see a youth on the street, you could end up with chlamydia, find your wallet removed and get AIDS from a violent assault with a syringe.

Then the media frenzy over paedophiles. No one lets their children out to play any more... after all, who knows who lives next door! Better to keep kids locked up night and day so they never learn anything about real life or socialise with their own kind.

When you add all this up, you wonder why we haven't all already given up and resigned ourselves to living the rest of our lives in an air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden. Yet every day, people are apparently taking their lives into their own hands by stepping out their front doors and doing the things they've been doing for decades.

We really need to calm down. Sure there are problems. But let's stop this ridiculous knee-jerk reaction to everything. Life is not as simple as just stringing up all criminals and whipping kids into submission. That solves nothing. We need to gain a sense of perspective, and a sense of rationality. It's becoming quite desperate now.