Oh Boy! Does Fear Ever Rule The World

More than usual today the news is filled with proof that fear is the dominant emotion in the human mind.  Fear is so prevalent, so pervasive that often we are as unaware of it as the fish is the water in which it swims.  But events of the past few days and weeks have so highlighted the power and universal presence of fear that it cannot be ignored as a motivator of political decisions.

Pakistan is ruled by fear.  The corrosive effects of fear, fear arising from a religious belief system which itself is predicated on fear, are clearly seen in the indecisive nature of the civilian government.  The government of Pakistan has been hollowed out by fear.  The civilian leadership has been rendered the next thing to powerless by the fear created by Muslim clerics espousing the line of violent political Islam.

These clerics and their followers cannot win more than a microscopic percentage of the votes in anything approaching an open and fair election, admittedly a broadly defined thing given Pakistan's "democratic" history.  The clerics and their thuggish mobs can, however, make for impressive street demonstrations.  More saliently the clerics have the capacity to motivate their zombies to commit murder.  Nothing attracts the full and undivided attention of a politician more completely than the prospect of ending up on the wrong end of a gun held by a hollow minded man convinced by his neighborhood preacher that pulling the trigger is an act of obedience by the good slave of Allah.

President Zardiri and the rest of his "democratically" elected government as well as the equally "democratic" parliament have been rendered both irrelevant to the future of their country as well as impotent in its current policies and actions by their surrender to fear.  As a result, Pakistan is becoming a hollow state with great rapidity.  The government has no genuine authority in any area of activity more important than assuring paychecks are distributed to government workers on time.  The real power, the genuine authority over important matters such as stability both present and future or foreign policy or the status of minorities and women or the availability of eduction have been de facto granted to the clerics and their zombie legions.

The fear engendered by the clerics, the religion they purport to interpret, and the zombies has reached such a magnitude that even the army has been marginalized.  Whether due to Islamist subornation or because of a tacit agreement with the clerical position based upon the sense of duty, the absolute duty of slave to master repeatedly explicit in Islam, or fear of dying at the hands of a zombie, the army has backed away from confronting the danger within, the internal threat which bodes well to destroy Pakistan as a functioning state.

The army is on the sidelines.  The government is hollow.  The voters of Pakistan are massively irrelevant.  The only power in the country is that of the clerics.  They exercise the power of fear in a way which is, today, all but  unchallenged.

But the power of fear is not limited to Pakistan.  Nor is it limited to clerics with an agenda of violent political Islam.

Since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the anti-nuclear forces throughout the West have come roaring out of the woodwork where they have been lurking.  The loss of cooling incident in the three reactors flooded by the tsunami is one of potentially catastrophic proportions to be sure.  Even if a worst case outcome results--a total meltdown of the core which breaches containment so that massive levels of radiation hit the external environment--this is not a reason to drop the flag on the use of nuclear energy to provide electricity either in the US or Europe.

The cause of the loss of coolant is both easy to understand and holds few if any lessons for nuclear power stations located in areas where tsunamis are not to be expected.  This is what makes the precipitant actions by Swiss and German authorities risible in the extreme.  Not only is neither country noted for its exposure to tsunamis, neither is prone to earthquakes.

Given that the proximate cause of the loss of coolant was the improper siting of the backup generators in a low point on the power station, the reaction of the Swiss, the Germans, American politicians such as Representative Markey, and all the others of the anti-nuclear neo-Luddite crowd is hilariously incorrect and tragically misguided.  The Tokyo Electric Power Company made a world class blunder when it was decided the expensive seawall would provide ample protection against tsunamis and allowed the backup generators to be located at a topographic low point.  An abundance of prudence would have dictated placing the generators at the highest possible location--just in case.  That is the principle behind redundancy in safety systems.

Had the generators not been flooded by the tsunami, the reactor scram triggered by the earthquake would have proceeded nominally.  There would have been no core exposure.  No hydrogen bubbles.  No explosions.  No radiation release.  No fear.

But, one bad error.  One over reliance on a single protective system had totally non-linear consequences.  In a way the outcome of the Japanese experience is understandable.  People are very afraid of radiation.  For more than fifty years, ever since the fallout scares of the Eisenhower years, there has been a deep and often quite unreasoning ever expanding fear of ionizing radiation.  The reaction of the Germans, the Swiss, the American greens is an emblem of that.

Ionizing radiation deserves the utmost of respect.  It is dangerous.  Very dangerous.  But, so is much of life.  The big difference separating ionizing radiation from other forms of equally dangerous realities of life is the nature of the beast--not detectable by the natural senses, capable of inflicting painful and fatal injuries which might not be evident for some months or years, the inability of medical science to offer more than palliative or supportive treatment.  Ionizing radiation even more than toxic chemicals or deadly microbes is the perfect metaphor for technology run amok, the mad scientist and his evil creation.

It is noteworthy that the forty year old reactors, reactors which were scheduled for decommission until a recent decision to extend their service life, have so far resisted the forces liberated within their containment vessels.  It is noteworthy that with the exception of the siting decision from hell regarding the backup generators, the scram procedures worked correctly and as planned.  It is also noteworthy that safety systems have not been stationary over the past four decades but, like reactor design generally, have been improved greatly.

Not that boring considerations from the realm of reality matter in the face of fear and those whose success in achieving their agenda demands magnifying fear.  Not even the mundane reality that the advanced economies of the world must have access to nuclear generated electricity can prevail in the minds of the most fearful--and those who desire to succeed on the wave of fear.

As the members of the Pakistani government are willing and ready to sacrifice the future of their country on the alter of fear so also are the "deep greens" and others of the vast neo-Luddite movement who distrust technology and fear its consequences.  To these people the sacrifice of the American and other economies on the alter of fear is both necessary and laudable.  To the True Believers of Greenism, lowering the American standard of living through a gospel of "conservation" and "renewable energy" is as obligatory as is the duty of the good slave to Allah for a Muslim.  Damn the consequences!  I'm fulfilling my duty is the motto of both the Greens of anti-technology and the Green Flag Wavers of Islam.

Fear is even a controlling factor in the Oval.  President Obama is loath to act properly regarding Libya due to fear.  He and his ever-so-small group of foreign policy advisors are frightened of possible negative reactions by Arabs and Muslims generally should the US act to defend not only its national interests but those of other countries to say nothing of the Libyan insurgents.  And, the Nice Young Man From Chicago is afraid of being seen as another George W. Bush, a humiliating proposition for a man whose career has been based on running against George W.  And, he may well be afraid of losing the next election.  Fear as a motivator is strong but rarely right.

There are so many other examples lurking in the pages of the MSM of the world.  But the Geek is a sensitive and tender soul.  He can take only so many depressing thoughts in any one day.  He has reached his limit.  But, feel free to add your own examples; they sure as hell aren't hard to find.