Bio-terrorism: Selling Fear My instinctive reaction whenever I hear or read fear-mongering is skepticism and denial. Fear has long been a tool of the Empire used in the service of control and in establishing illegitimate authority. Whether the fear-mongers are on the left or the right, alarm bells go off in my head. Whoever peddles fear tries to manipulate me. When a reader forwarded to me a news story about the development and danger of biological weapons, I thought "the Shrub administration is doing its set up work to justify mega-billions in defense spending." However, the reader's commentary drew attention to an implied bias in the news article that I had missed in my initial reading. The underlying assumption of the article was that the US was the pure, morally superior protector of the world and that the responsibility of the US is to enforce restrictions of the development of biological weapons through sanctions or punitive strikes. The possibility that the US itself might be a major developer of biological weapons (and other "weapons of mass destruction") or might use those weapons against its enemies either openly or in secret was not admitted. Do we really trust the US military not to develop a deadly weapon? Throughout the twentieth century the US military showed itself willing to build whatever weapon of mass destruction it thought necessary and demonstrated the will to use it on the battlefield. Why would anything change now that we have entered a new century? The Shrub administration pitches its National Missile Defense program to the public at every opportunity. The pitch promises deliverance from the fear of mutual assured destruction. People want so badly to believe that they are safe, they will fall for the impossible lie: that a ballistic missile defense system can protect us from nuclear annihilations. Now some special interest groups clamor for something equivalent to protect against biological weapons, a biological weapons shield. Where will it end? People won't stop being afraid until they have been made immortal and indestructible. The message of the Cold Warriors hasn't changed. We no longer have a well defined enemy that we can point to on the map; instead we have a shady enemy who is more frightening because of their lack of identity and seeming ubiquity--terrorists. A new word has come into our vocabulary. Now that the Soviet Union has become an artifact of history, the ill-defined "rogue state" has taken over as the universal boogie-man. Below I have collected some links to items that discuss the threat of bio-terrorism. A careful reading will show how they use fear to advance their policies. Controlling Biological Weapons: It's Time for Action F.A.S. Public Interest Report Journal of the Federation of American Scientists (F.A.S.) Volume 53, Number 5 September/October 2000 Deadly virus fuels bio-terror fears Wednesday, 10 January, 2001, 19:18 GMT This provides a model for a simple biological weapon that seemingly anyone can produce and let loose on an unsuspecting population. 'First mad cow case' from Austria Sunday, 14 January, 2001, 15:38 GMT While not a case of bio-terrorism, reporting on "mad cow" disease is a reverse example of fear-mongering. Consumer groups try to use fear to make their case that the beef companies endanger public health by allowing infected meat to be packaged and sold. In the US the beef industry has lobbied hard to belay fears about the safety of their product. The point is that fear is a powerful rhetorical tool. Consumer fear can be dangerous to a product. When the microwave oven was first mass-produced and sold, a fear campaign which claimed microwave "leakage" caused cataracts. Microwaves again came under fire with unsubstantiated reports of cell-phone users developing brain cancer. A recent study showed no correlation between cell-phone use and brain cancer. Corporations will fight consumer fear of products, but turn around and use fear to encourage use of their products. Whenever you see somebody urging you to fear something, you should first ask yourself what that person (corporation or government) has to gain from your being afraid. This is lesson number one in thought control. -- Donavan Hall, Ph. D.