Today's Daily Express newspaper had a front page that showed, in a single photograph, the destruction caused by one of yesterday's bombs in Istanbul. Across the picture, in the biggest type it could manage, was the headline "Britain Under Attack". Now, the targets bombed in Turkey were British, it is true, but the aim of the headline and picture was clear. Someone glancing at the front page would think the bomb had been in Britain. The newspaper would try numerous defences, but in the end, the sole purpose of this was to sell more newspapers. "A bomb in Britain", people think. The heartrate rises. We wonder if someone we know was near. Adrenalin flows. The passer-by picks up the newspaper, maybe buys it. This is the game of fear.

The game of terror is a familiar one. Whether it's the terrorist with their unexpected attacks anywhere in the world, or George Bush's "shock and awe" terror is an easy game. You strike terror into your enemies. The game of fear is more subtle, but its aims are similar. In his documentary, Bowling for Colombine, Michael Moore talks about how American media use fear to increase sales/viewers. Their aim is commercial. Governments do not object. In fact, they encourage it. A scared population will object less when their freedoms of dissent are taken away. They dislike the loss of liberties, but they see the manufactured fear--the black man on the street with his drugs and guns, the homeless man ready to steal your wallet, the terrorist in every foreigner's face--and they conclude that the liberty is not too much to lose to protect them from that. After all, if you've nothing to hide, why would you mind 24 hour total surveilance? Why would you object to more taxes to the police and military? And the failures of the governments on issues that should really matter--education, health, environment, quality of life--are easier to hide and are sooner forgotten. That is the game of fear, and it is a curse on us all.

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I haven't had a winter coat for years. Every winter I shiver in my fleece jacket and wear three thousand layers. Each year, I'm determined to go out and get one. Last year, to my embarrassment, Steph's mom had to take me around half the malls in Michigan, and I still couldn't find one. Not this year. I've got my eye on one in a catalogue. I'm going to own it and it's going to last. No more will I be cold. I will laugh at snow and rain and ice. Ha.