Paranoia in the Land of Freedom

American society lives in a culture of fear, and not only since 9/11. It starts with the excessively cultivated right to gun ownership along with worries about not being slim enough or commercially successful enough: Fear dominates everyday life. In the New York subway you can see advertisements for fire detectors with a photo of a girl with a burned face. In addition there is the slogan: “You know the worst sound that a fire alarm can make — silence!” Even the apartment building in Philadelphia, where I have been living with my wife Marie for a few years, is video surveyed in the laundry room and gym.

Marie is American and I am German. Before we moved in together I shared an apartment in New York with a couple whose female half, Melissa, usually sat on the sofa watching TV and smoking cannabis. Once we talked about my reasoning for leaving Germany and what had bothered me there. She only said, “You’re going to learn to hate America too.” In retrospect she seems to me like a stoned oracle.

It is natural for me to follow political developments every day, but Marie reacts like many U.S. citizens I know: She is turning away from conflicts. After 9/11, Afghanistan and the Iraq War, she only wants to move back into the bubble of an ideal American world.

Marie is a teacher and every morning she repeats the pledge of allegiance with her students. She does not smoke or drink alcohol or coffee. She voted for Obama, is in favor of gay rights, is against weapons and is not particularly religious. Marie sees herself as a liberal. On the East Coast it is courteous to be liberal.

Behind this politically correct façade, there are also hidden conservative values: Angry people belong in prison. Very evil people belong in the electric chair. A sex offender can be identified and be pilloried via the Internet, publishing their photo and residence without qualm. And the Boston assassin? First torture, then kill him!

In the Bubble of a Perfect World

I often try to start a discussion on these issues. I argue that even criminals have human rights, that you do not fight the causes by locking up half of the population, only the symptoms, that there is no absolute security and that the surveillance state will destroy freedom. Marie responds by fleeing into the protective bubble, and she ends the debate with the sentence, “I don’t wanna talk about it anymore!”

If we stay with friends, for example with the Horrocks family, I am not allowed to talk about politics. Miriam Horrocks is the widow of the co-pilot whose aircraft hit the second tower on Sept. 11. Today she is remarried; her husband Paul is a confirmed Republican.

Marie and I have lunch with the family and their four children, but first a prayer is said. Their oldest daughter, Christa, begins talking about parts of the book “Snow Falling on Cedars” and says that she can understand the problems of minorities in the United States. Her stepfather ignores it. Then the conversation turns to the gun rampage in Fort Hood. Miriam is immediately clear on the fact that al-Qaida is behind it; Paul says that they all should be locked away and left to themselves. Marie is silent because she follows the majority opinion. I am silent because I do not want to sleep on the sofa.

Fear of Terrorism, Fear of Aliens

Many Americans I know are full of fear. Maybe a culture of fear has always prevailed, and indeed it is so pronounced that it has irrational consequences. For example, in 1938 the science fiction-based radio drama “War of the Worlds” was broadcast, triggering mass hysteria because 2 of the 6 million American listeners believed the alien attack to be real.

There is no ultimate protection from aliens just as there is little from real dangers. In an attempt to establish the ideal society as being unassailable, the United States has destroyed everything that makes their society worth living. The Democrats have destroyed my hope for a political alternative by taking over and legitimizing the legacy of the Bush era. Barack Obama may have officially declared the end of the war against terrorism, but the National Security Agency state within the state will remain. The United States remains a world power full of paranoia.