So today Athens, Georgia was turned upside down for a little while in the middle of the afternoon by an old-fashioned bomb threat. Actually, the threat wasn't super specific about just what was going to happen, just that 'if you want to live' you should 'stay away' from a particular building 'at 12:15.' Said building, named after former lieutenant-governor, Governor, and Senator Zell Miller, is a rather large and cavernous brick building that probably took an hour or more to clear once they got the dogs up there to do it.
I mention all this because I've been a little amused by some friends who are foreign-born but teaching at UGA. They are acting exactly like soldiers in Iraq after their first IED or mortar strike. Nothing happened, just an empty anonymous threat, but you'd think they'll be needing PTSD counseling.
It's all this media coverage of school shootings and whatnot. It's got people scared out of their minds. Crime and violence are actually down across the board, but you can't say "boo" without terrifying people. It's not healthy to be this heavily swayed by images on TV.
Wasn't Miller the former Democrat that got purged out of his own party for being an apostate or heretic.
ReplyDeleteA society can do that, is likely to be heavily swayed by images on TV. Or perhaps it was the other way around.
No, no one dared to purge him. He's still a Democrat. But you're probably thinking of this.
ReplyDeleteI mention all this because I've been a little amused by some friends who are foreign-born but teaching at UGA. They are acting exactly like soldiers in Iraq after their first IED or mortar strike. Nothing happened, just an empty anonymous threat, but you'd think they'll be needing PTSD counseling.
ReplyDeleteI think it's more like they don't expect police or the gov to save them, so their anxiety quotient is higher, like in feral cats or rabbits kept near humans. They aren't comfortable, because the domesticated ones are comfortable.
Of course born or trained warriors calm under pressure is the outlier and cannot be the control here.
In Nigeria, one professor said he was out back with his gun posse defending his fields from raiders. On 9/11, he said he would get out, ignored all the authorities, and just bust on through cause he won't be in those buildings if something happens. Meaning if there's somebody blocking the fire escape on the tower, he would bull through them and treat them like an enemy.
Not exactly conditioned or coordinated, like the Japanese or lines. Almost like feral bush every man for himself, or every family for himself.
Of course the college professors may also be cowards and domesticated to feel helpless by now. Their anxiety may just as easily be that as anything else.
Grim, these people have likely been coddled thier entire life. Probably never got in a school yard fistfight, or ever had to fix a leaky toilet.
ReplyDeleteOn a rather long link trail I came across a guy who just quit his job at Home Despot.(snark)
He was convinced by his interactions with customers that in a shtf scenario, most would die in the first week as we are incapable of DOING anything. That WW2 generation of self reliant folks, the guys who grew up fixing cars, welded railroad iron onto Shermans to bust through the hedgerows in Normandy, those qualities were everywhere- now, they are a rarity, to be found in a small subset of the population.
Count ourselves fortunate if we have family,friends ,and nieghbors in that group.