It seems to me that we are constantly being bombarded by a media obsessed with our impending doom. The plague of the 21st century is exaggerated fear mongering to keep “we” the people from focusing on our taxes getting higher or what is really going on in the world. If there is a shark attack, it is reported that there is a crisis of shark attacks and no one should ever go in the ocean again. Earthquake? Hurricanes? Sure signs of the end of the world. Never mind that we have always had earthquakes and hurricanes. Never mind that earthquakes and hurricanes in the past have wrought more death and destruction than the more recent ones. What matters is that the destruction in the 21st century has political implications and fault is duly assigned based on what political ideology has control of the most sources of information.

The greatest stroke of sheer genius in this area is global warming. First, in the 1970s, it was global cooling. The coming of a new ice age. Nobody bought it. Then in the 1980s they changed it to global warming saying that if we didn't change our evil ways (living comfortably) we would all die in a couple of hundred years when the ice caps melted and the bread belt turned to desert. Well 200 hundred years was way too remote to force the average idiot to make any significant moves towards accepting socialism, so the effects of global warming had to be moved up to the present. If it is hot or cold, windy or still, stormy or calm, it doesn't really matter, all is the fault of global warming. The genius of this is that now the political left can blame the weather on the political right no matter what the weather is doing. The effect of global warming went from something that happened gradually over long time periods to something that happens within the term of office of a single Republican Administration. And the people, being stupid, bought it.

Now this has always been true. In the past, earthquakes, hurricanes or pestilence were brought forth by the wrath of God, or the gods, depending on how far back you go. The absence of mass communications, allowed local demigods to bluster about divine retribution and the local masses, being stupid, would burn the local redhead or sacrifice a passing virgin and since the catastrophe didn't immediately reoccur, proclaim a successful intervention with the local deity. In today's world, we have the same approach, but with a more global impact. We no longer burn redheads. Virgins hardly ever happen by; so we point the blame at those whom we disagree with politically in order to gain favor with the largest majority. The national or global masses, being stupid, go along with a convincing media point of view and voting patterns change. Since the catastrophe doesn't immediately reoccur, we justify our actions and move on to the next shiny bobble dangled before us.

There are some actual dangers that could be used to keep the people in line, but politics will not allow it. For example, terrorism. Terrorism is a real threat. Really committed idiots strap on bombs and blow people up. Fortunately, for the terrorists, the current holders of communication sources do not want the people to fear terrorism lest such fear helps the Bush Administration. So, they claim that the efforts to thwart terrorism are unnecessary and that the solution is to disengage from the fanatics of Islam and pretend that there will be no consequence at least until the next election cycle has safely passed. In the meantime, some form of doom must be hung over our heads to keep us in line. Hurricanes and earthquakes are good for the short term but since the attention span of 21st century man is about 10 minutes from the point of the disaster to the point where we erase it from our minds, natural disasters don't have the same impact as more abstract threats.

So what is there to do? How can we scare the majority into allowing government to take more in taxes and grow their power while helping one side of the ideology war and damaging the other?

Enter bird flu. It's perfect. Here we have a horrible potential disease that doesn't currently exist. It may never exist so it can be milked for some period of time. If it turns into an epidemic that takes up the 24/7 news cycle, even better. It is an easy concept to explain to the stupid masses and we can point to history, comparing it to every epidemic from the Black Death to the flu pandemic in 1918. It makes the Bush administration look unprepared and it doesn't make the Democrats look un-American. We can line up the populace for vaccinations and if anyone dies, we can sue those mean old drug companies. If no one dies, we can claim those mean old drug companies engineered the entire threat for profit and sue them anyway.