There’s just too much anger here, too much ruptured vanity, too much shock, too much identity crisis. And, worst of all, too much patriotism. Patriotism in a country that’s failing has a logical tendency to turn fascistic, just as too much sentimentality will corrupt compassion. Fascism in America is not going to come with a political party. Nor with black shirts or brown shirts. But there will be a curtailing of liberties. Homeland Security has put the machinery in place. The people who are running the country, in my opinion, simply do not have the character or wisdom to fight for the concept of freedom if we sufferhorrors; no, not if we suffer dirty bombs, terrorist attacks on a huge scale, virulent diseases. The notion that you’re going to have your freedom saved by people who work for security agencies is curious at best. They’re on a one-way street. Anything bad of that sort is very bad for them. So they’re going to do their utmost to restrict the freedom of people during critical situations. In the final analysis, democracy is inimical to security. Americans have to be willing to say at a certain point that we’re ready to take some terrorist hits without panicking, that freedom is more important to us than security.
Let’s suppose ten people are killed by a small bomb on a street corner in some city in America. The first thing to understand is that there are 285 million Americans. So, there’s one chance in 28.5 million you’re going to be one of those people. By such heartless means of calculation, the three thousand deaths in the Twin Towers came approximately to one mortality for every ninety thousand Americans. Your chances of dying if you drive a car are one inseven thousand each year. We seem perfectly ready to put up with automobile statistics.
DOTSON RADER : What is dangerous about what you are saying is that it implies there is a tolerable level of terror, and we have to accept it.
NORMAN MAILER : That’s what I fear I am ready to say. There is a tolerable level to terror. Let’s relieve ourselves of the idea that we have to remove all terror. Let’s learn to live with the anxiety.
What scared the hell out of me was a recent poll that indicated half the people in America are willing to accept a certain curtailment of their liberties in return for more security. If, already at this point, 50 percent of the people are ready to give up some of their liberties in return for that dubious security, then what’s going to happen if something truly bad ensues? Our belief that Americans are free individuals has suffered erosion in the last ten years from too much stock market and the greed it inspired. You know, Marxand Jesus Christ do come together on one fundamental notion, which is that money leaches out all other values. Those ten years have done a lot of damage to the country’s character. It’s not as nice a place as it used to be.
I must say it again: In a country where values are collapsing, patriotism becomes the handmaiden to totalitarianism. The country becomes the religion. We are asked to live in a state of religious fervor: Love America! Love it because America has become a substitute for religion. But to love your country indiscriminately means that critical distinctions begin to go. And democracy depends upon these distinctions.
A good Englishman has a certain sense of the complexity of his national life. Even if he rides to hounds. The British have memory in a way we don’t. That is the scariest single thing about American democracy to me: We don’t have roots the way other countries do. Relatively, we are without deep traditions. So the transition from democracy to totalitarianism could happen quickly.There could be fewer impediments here, those brakes and barriers that true conservatives usually count upon. But without the stops and locks, a nation can swing from one extreme to the other.
DOTSON RADER : Is there anything about this country that you love
Let’s suppose ten people are killed by a small bomb on a street corner in some city in America. The first thing to understand is that there are 285 million Americans. So, there’s one chance in 28.5 million you’re going to be one of those people. By such heartless means of calculation, the three thousand deaths in the Twin Towers came approximately to one mortality for every ninety thousand Americans. Your chances of dying if you drive a car are one inseven thousand each year. We seem perfectly ready to put up with automobile statistics.
DOTSON RADER : What is dangerous about what you are saying is that it implies there is a tolerable level of terror, and we have to accept it.
NORMAN MAILER : That’s what I fear I am ready to say. There is a tolerable level to terror. Let’s relieve ourselves of the idea that we have to remove all terror. Let’s learn to live with the anxiety.
What scared the hell out of me was a recent poll that indicated half the people in America are willing to accept a certain curtailment of their liberties in return for more security. If, already at this point, 50 percent of the people are ready to give up some of their liberties in return for that dubious security, then what’s going to happen if something truly bad ensues? Our belief that Americans are free individuals has suffered erosion in the last ten years from too much stock market and the greed it inspired. You know, Marxand Jesus Christ do come together on one fundamental notion, which is that money leaches out all other values. Those ten years have done a lot of damage to the country’s character. It’s not as nice a place as it used to be.
I must say it again: In a country where values are collapsing, patriotism becomes the handmaiden to totalitarianism. The country becomes the religion. We are asked to live in a state of religious fervor: Love America! Love it because America has become a substitute for religion. But to love your country indiscriminately means that critical distinctions begin to go. And democracy depends upon these distinctions.
A good Englishman has a certain sense of the complexity of his national life. Even if he rides to hounds. The British have memory in a way we don’t. That is the scariest single thing about American democracy to me: We don’t have roots the way other countries do. Relatively, we are without deep traditions. So the transition from democracy to totalitarianism could happen quickly.There could be fewer impediments here, those brakes and barriers that true conservatives usually count upon. But without the stops and locks, a nation can swing from one extreme to the other.
DOTSON RADER : Is there anything about this country that you love
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