big fear equals big bullshit?

I don't know if it's just me, but is anyone else sick of fear? 

I mean, seriously, I don't think there's been a single point in my life where I haven't been scared shitless by one thing or another. I think the only time where I didn't fear anything was back in the 70's when I was a little guy and all that really mattered to me was comic books and Saturday morning cartoons.

But as soon as the 80's rolled around and I was able to join in on the conversations (or at the very least comprehend)  my boisterous of my Irish working class family instigated was when the fear started to take hold.

The 80's was all about nuclear annihilation and the imminent threat of communism, and, of course the added threat of the dreaded crack and pot and coke that was absolutely going to destroy the youth of America. The drugs and the just say no campaign--like most teenagers of my generation--was more a joke than anything else, largely because most of us were spending our weekends and after school time downing beers and doing bong tokes, and none of us were out running wild in the streets, or breaking into the nest door neighbors house in order to support our drug "addictions". But, maybe it was just where I lived. I grew up in a fairly rural area where the crime rate was practically non-existent. But in the Mid-west and larger cities America experienced the birth of the gated community to keep the violent, crack addicted ghetto dwellers out and the middle class safe and behind bars.

My big fear in the 80's was nuclear annihilation. Yeah, I was convinced at any second the bomb was going to drop and the commies were going to come marching across U.S. borders and enslave our entire country. Movies like the Day after and Red Dawn and Rambo and Rocky 4 and the Terminator said that human destruction was inevitable and there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it. I, of course, bought into this shit hook line and sinker.

We of course know what happened to the Commies (at least the most vocal collection of nations, the USSR.) And most folks could care less about a nuclear strike at this point.

In the 90's, well, to be honest, I really didn't give a shit about anything. I didn't pay attention to the news. I never read magazines (for the exception of Maximum Rock'n'roll which I read religiously.) picked up a newspaper, and most of the time I didn't own or have access to a television, and I more or less kept my nose buried in a book and ignored what was going on in the world. So whatever people were scared of back then, I could care less.

Then the 2000's rolled around, and I took my head out of the sand largely because I more or less became a responsible, involved citizen. A suburbanite with a job, a wife, a home with cable and a computer that provided a nonstop stream of information.

And then the World trade center attacks happened and suddenly the U.S. was going bug shit over guys in turbans and the war on drugs was replaced with the war on terror. And I'm not even going to in to the environment and the imminent disaster that human race is inevitably going to be destroyed by.

And now it's the economy.

I can't turn on the TV or read a magazine or turn on the computer without being bombarded by more and more news of the inevitable financial world collapse.

I'm not going to further list all the things that so many news agencies have already beaten into our skulls over the past six months.

What I have figured out is that life in the 90's really wasn't all that bad, and I've more or less decided to bury my head in the sand again and just be concerned with what's important to me. Yes, I'm still going to read the news online, I'm still going to watch TV, and read Time magazine and the other periodicals I typically read. But when it comes right down to it, I'm just not going to give a shit anymore.

I'm giving fear and anxiety about the world at large the middle finger and keep doing the things I love and nothing else. Because to me, the only way to live is keeping my head buried deep underground.