I’ve mentioned a lot about the effects of the cold war mentality on the U.S. Even though the cold war is over twenty years gone I am still continuing to see example after example of its mentality. In some ways, it seems that there is no end to it. In fact, the more I look at it the more the “cold war mentality” seems to be a strong element in American thinking, identity, and perception of the world. Even after all these years many Americans view society, themselves, and the world in a ‘cold warish’ way, assuming and interpreting things as if the cold war was still going on, with the same themes, logic, and points of view they took during the cold war. The problem is that “times have changed”, the cold war is no longer here. We are not fighting a ‘great threat’ anymore, we don’t have to ‘glorify freedom and democracy at all costs’, or see bad and hate in everything. These themes are no longer legitimate anymore or valid.
There are times when the “cold war mentality” has a quality that can appear as a ‘mania’ or ‘hysteria’, generally toward some imagined fear or in glorifying the country and its values. This often gives the “cold war mentality” a quality of an emotion or idea that ‘overwhelms’ a person . . . that is, they tend to get carried away with it. When it does this, they are often helpless against it and, in a way, controlled by it. There is then a tendency to drape the mania or hysteria in something like a self-righteousness. In this way, it develops a quality of a “justified mania”. This gives the illusion that their mania is in control, but this is actually not the case. Being a mania, it has a control over a person, and society, making people actually helpless against it. As a result, “cold war mentality” is rooted in a helplessness toward the mania. This fact, as far as I know, has never been acknowledged but I have seen endless examples of the mania and its power over people.
In fact, one of the problems with the “cold war mentality” is that its effects are generally difficult to change or alter, particularly in law and politics, simply because people are helpless against the mania it causes. Once its there its there, right or wrong. This is so powerful that, even though something may be viewed as ‘obviously wrong’ to everyone, there is no way to change it. This is seen especially in law where various rulings are viewed as so blatantly wrong but, yet, not even the lawyers or judges can change it. This shows the extreme of this mentality . . . truly, the mania has ‘taken over’. Typically, these are all over specific issues begun, and which had relevance, during the cold war.
The continual presence of the “cold war mentality” shows that it has become a part of the national identity. Much of the “cold war mentality” persists because much of American nationalism was rallied for it. The cold war, really, was an intensification of national feeling, perhaps more than ever in the history of the U.S., making it the “great example” of what America is. As a result of this, the cold war is forever locked into nationalistic feeling and sentiment. Accordingly, nationalistic feeling and sentiment is forever locked in the cold war. This makes the cold war a truly defining period in American history.
Over the years I have used many terms to describe this condition, such as “cold war crazy”, “cold war mania”, “cold war hysteria”, or “cold war panic”. Recently, I’ve spoken a lot of the “cold war sickness” as it almost seems like a generalized ‘sickness’. Its a sickness in that it is a mania that controls people and society and the fact that it persists the cold war mentality even though there is no reason for it. In that sense its almost like a great delusion. As a result, it causes a distortion in things. Its caused a lot of misinterpretation as a result as well. Its also caused a great undermining of the society.
I have already written a number of articles about this, such as:
More thoughts on the cold war mentality: the ‘oppression myth’
More thoughts on the cold war mentality: a poor way to look at ones country and the world
Thoughts on the ‘unspoken post cold war fear’ – the ‘rights violation culture’
Thoughts on the ridiculousness of political correctness – another example of cold war paranoia
Thoughts on cold war thinking and how it is out dated
THE CAUSE
Despite what it says America is not the “home of the brave”. From my observation it has shown that it is actually more like the “home of the paranoid” or “home of the easily-frightened” more than anything else. In many ways, the U.S. has become overwhelmed by a “runaway fear” which the cold war started. This is “runaway fear” a significant part of the “cold war mentality”. A lot of this, though, is masked by self-glorification and self-righteousness making it seem almost non-existent. This “runaway fear” is rather ironic in that it was a former American President, FDR, who said those famous words: “all we have to fear is fear itself”. Who would of known that the country he spoke about would go into one of the greatest manias of fear in history just decades later?
The cause of this fear is simple: nuclear annihilation. It was the fear of the weapons of war that caused it, the fear of being destroyed. But it was even more than that. This fear was often viewed as the potentional destruction of humanity, and perhaps life, on earth. And we must remember that it was a threat we created and caused for ourselves. Not only that, the potential tension (between the U.S. and the USSR) was also of our creation. As a result, humanity was threatening itself with its own things and ideas. This created a great inner doubt about humanity which ultimately led to a great condemnation of humanity. As a result, the “cold war mentality” is very much rooted in a self-condemnation.
THE ‘THREAT IMAGINED’
This fear, though, was not in the face of an obvious threat. In other words, it was not impending and apparent nor could it be seen. As a result, it was a “threat imagined”, as I often say. This means that it is a fear of ‘what could happen’ or ‘what might happen’, which is all based on what one imagines is possible. This made it so that ones imagination created the image of the threat and what it consisted of. This gave the cold war fear a particular quality. It gave it a quality of “it is there and it isn’t there”, making it seem undefined and vague. Since one could not define it ones imagination had ‘free reign’ to create what the threat was. As a result, the cold war fear became unrestrained, going in practically any way and form that was convenient and what suited the current situation. It also gave it a quality of being undirected, making it go anywhere it wanted and toward anything, even things that have nothing to do with the cold war at all. In the end, the imaginary undefined threat became as if detached from any object or thing and as if floated around the populace like a breeze looking for something to “latch” onto. Anything that remotely catered to the fear and threat was “latched” onto and, lo and behold, a threat was found! As a result, the fear and threat ‘seeped’ into everyday life, and affecting many things, many of which have nothing whatsoever to do with the cold war. Many of the people who felt the fear were not aware of it, often ascribing it to other things. This made it so that it had ‘hidden’ manifestations which often appeared in unexpected ways. A good example of this is that, during this time, movies of disasters were common, such as “Earthquake”, “Towering Inferno”, “Poseidon Adventure”, “Airport ’77”, and so on. These all reflected this ‘hidden fear’ detached from the cold war threat itself, of nuclear annihilation and destruction.
Because the threat was imagined and detached, and undefined, it led to many weird paranoias, phobias, and fears as well. These practically plaque the whole cold war era. One interesting form this took is the whole thing about “aliens”. This reflected a sense of the fear of what the cold war could do (invasion, take over, destruction, etc.). A common fear were claims of some form of “abuse” by other people. This led to a whole slew of accusations and name-calling (racist, sexist, etc.) that went way out of control. There were also continual and endless claims of ‘oppression’ and ‘enslavement’ and ‘rights violations’ by people, most of which were not true. People saw threats everywhere, practically coming out of the woodwork. Because of this, the cold war fear created a condition where people saw things that weren’t going on and did not exist. As a result, it created something like adelusionthat, in some cases, was almost psychotic-like. In fact, it would not be far off to say that the “cold war mentality” tended to lead to delusional and paranoid thinking.
THE ‘WAR OF PHILOSOPHY’
An aspect of the cold war threat is a disagreement over views, political and economic, that almost reminds one of the religious wars of the past. Communism stood in opposition to the ideas of Democracy and Capitalism. As a result, the fear turned into a ‘war of philosophy’. This ‘war of philosophy’ created a tendency to worship our values which, subsequently, turned into a form of self-glorification.
A common line of thought, when America glorifies itself, is that it follows this line of logic:
“The people are oppressed by a tyrannical government. They rise up and rebel and overthrow the government and its tyranny. They set up a democracy so everyone can vote. Because everyone can vote everyone is happy. The individual now has power. All problems fade away and people live in peace and harmony forever.”
Sounds good, but its very narrow and superficial, nor does it reflect real historical reality. From what I have seen, it seldom describes real-world experience and situation . . . but yet most of America’s self-glorification is based on this premise. Its so narrow that America’s explanation of historical events is almost predictable. Its one of the reasons why America’s explanations are so ridiculous. Its also why America often makes bad decisions. Basically, the whole American line of thought is based on an overly simplistic, non-realistic viewpoint.
QUALITIES OF THE “COLD WAR MENTALITY”
The “cold war mentality” is actually made out of several viewpoints that can basically be described as an imagined “detached” threat of just about anything which causes a tendency to self-glorification as a defense. As a result, we see the dual traits of this mentality:
- The threat, which turns into various forms of fear and paranoia.
- As a response there is a tendency to do blind glorification and exaltation of our ideals.
Sometimes these two qualities run together in a point of view or thought. At other times its one or the other exclusively. This gives great variety in how “cold war mentality” manifests itself, giving it three main manifestations:
- A generalized fear and paranoia. Here they have a fear or panic of something.
- A glorifying of themselves in comparision to something else, which usually threatens them in some way. Here their self-glorification is looked at in respect to something, that they are “better” or “right”.
- A generalized glorifying of how great they are. Here they simply glorify themselves because they think they are “great”.
THE “COLD WAR CULTURE”
Because the cold war threat is ‘imagined’ it is often dissasociated from the cold war itself, it is detached. In many cases, there is no “apparent” obvious association. This is because of the vagueness of the cold war threat turned it into something like a ‘mood’. As a result of this, I often determine if something is associated with the cold war not because there is a reference to the cold war but to its ‘mood’. In fact, I’d say that only a small proportion of the “cold war mentality” has obvious connections with the cold war itself (the Soviet Union, communism, democracy, war, atomic bombs, etc.). Most of it has become detached form it. The impact of the ‘mood’, which is not attached to anything, is why the cold war threat went way beyond the cold war itself. This is why it has a quality of ‘infiltration’ into everything and has had great impact on so many things in life, a lot of which has no direct association with the cold war. In effect, the cold war threat and fear went beyond just a threat of nuclear war to things associated with everyday life giving it a broad effect. As a result, it had tremendous effects on the society at large. Its effects has permeated things such as:
- Our perceptions of ourselves as a nation.
- Our perception of the world.
- Our perception of our role in the world.
- Our perception of right and wrong.
- Our perception of authority.
- Our perception of politics.
- Our perception of law.
- Our perception of the family.
- Our perception of how people associate with one another.
- Our perception of why people have problems.
- Our perception of ourselves.
And so on. Because of its infiltration of many aspects of life, the “cold war mentality” has, in many ways, created a culture of its own, of a certain way of looking at oneself and the world. I often speak of this as the “cold war culture”. This culture is something totally different from the era before it and is very unique. This is not so surprising as it was caused by a unique situation in the world (the threat of nuclear annihilation). In that sense it is not really as reflective of an “American culture” as it may seem. Its more of a history-based culture. Because of this, I often don’t see the “cold war culture” as “truly American”. In my opinion, it has actually undermined, weakened, and ate away at American culture. In fact, its sort of destroying it. I would even go so far to say that it has put the U.S. into something like a crisis.
One of the things that led to the proliferation of this mentality and culture is the media. In fact, if it had not of been for the media it probably would of never spread like it did or get as established. This makes this culture even more unique in history: not only was a result of nuclear annihilation but it was a culture created by the media. This even moves it further from the “truly American” culture which it sits with side-by-side.
As we move further away from the cold war we are seeing a change in this culture, something like a spectrum. On one extreme there are those who have moved beyond the “cold war culture” and its mentality (many of which, may of never took it up at all). This seems to be a small part of the population. Then there are those who do and don’t take it up, in varying proportions. Then there are those who won’t let it go. In fact, it seems that there is a large group of people who are practically refusing to let it go and, in a way, are intensifying it. One reason for this is that, because the cold war was based in a threat to us, the cold war has become associated with American patriotism and nationalism. As a result, people who are intent on patriotism and nationalism tend to prolong and propogate the “cold war mentality”. This is often done to ridiculous extents. Not only that, people who do this, tend to misinterpret things. Much of the governments “solutions” to dealing with world dilemma’s are based in “cold war mentality”, which is why they get out of control and are so expensive.
TRAITS AND MANIFESTATIONS OF THE “COLD WAR MENTALITY”
There are many ways that the “cold war mentality” appears.
Panic, Fear, and Paranoia
The threat of nuclear annihilation, war, and so on, that the cold war created, did create a defined fear against these things. Interestingly, the demonstrations of these were almost minor affairs, consisting of overt dreads, worries, or concerns which often were unspoken and seldom mentioned. Even in my life, I don’t ever recall anyone mentioning it directly. The only references I heard were things like “it’s scary”, “I hope it never comes to this”, and so on. I was often stunned how little it was mentioned or even talked about, though I knew many people were worried about it. This silence, I’ve often felt, is one of the reasons why it went off in other directions,creating its weird parania, fears, and such. In some sense, it became ‘repressed’ and resurfaced in other ways. In that sense, the “cold war mentality” behaved much like a neuroses, with a repressed emotion creating symptoms. And just like a neurotic symptom, at first glance there seems to be little association between the cause and the symptom. This tendency of neurotic repression/symptom, with the cold war, may be a reflection of the fact that we were dealing with the Victorian era, in which the neurotic repression/symptom tendency was a character trait. This would mean that the tendency for the fear not being mentioned and appearing in other ways is very much associated with the character of the people at the time.
“Detached” Panic, Fear, and Paranoia
As I said above, the cold war created a panic that is detached and removed from the cold war and has no apparent association with it. Because it is an imaginary threat it appeared in many different ways, seldom being associated with the cold war at all. The general sense of threat had its effect creating things like:
- It made it so that many Americans often have a sense of being ‘threatened’ all the time, or at least assume it. In many cases, they ‘jump to conclusions’ with things thinking things are threatening them but aren’t.
- They see potential threats everywhere. One of the effects of the cold war is that created this idea that the whole world is plotting against it in some way.
This continual sense leads to a strong tendency of paranoia. It is for this reason that the cold war era created many weird fears, worries, and panics. Most of these, of course, were false and existed only in the minds of the people who believed it. The paranoia created a tendency to create many fantasized fears that often got very involved. In some cases, they appeared to be substantiated by proof and evidence.
Its created many bizar conspiracy theories. A good example is the idea the government is plotting to take our freedoms from us. How many versions of this have we heard? This could get to the point that some people have become violent over this. I’ve heard of people who were shooting policeman because they were part of the ‘tyrannical government’. This fantasized fear ‘mood’ often got so out-of-control that it spurned on a whole ‘conspiracy theory’ movement in just about everything.
This fear created a continual fear that our freedoms are being taken from us or may be taken from us. Just about everything in the sun has been blamed for trying to take our freedoms from us: the government, the police, the male, any authority figure, other nations, terrorists, and even aliens. Yes, the whole world is plotting to take our freedoms from us.
The paranoia creates a tendency for people to feel that they are being plotted against in some way. Often, the government is viewed as plotting against the people, as if conspiring to take away the peoples freedoms. In other cases, it was other people, such as white people plotting against black people, males plotting against females, etc. Usually, these are usually viewed as if these are deliberate plots, usually be ‘evil bad people’. Sometimes, it sounds like a plot from some movie.
The new ‘cold war’: Terrorism
The “terrorist panic”, which took place after September 11, 2001, is actually a continuation of the “cold war panic”. In fact, it actually started it up again and gave it new meaning, bringing up many themes from the cold war again. Much of the reaction against terrorism is nothing but the cold war revived. Some of the cold war imitative themes I saw people take include:
- They acted as if the terrorists were going to invade and take over.
- They thought that the terrorists were going to set up a tyrannical regime.
- They thought the terrorists were going to take away our freedoms.
- They thought the soldiers, fighting the war on terror, were ‘fighting for our freedoms’.
- They saw, as the solution to the terrorist problem, the democratization of the middle east.
In effect, not only the people, but the government, made out the terrorist threat as if it were another Soviet Union, fighting for similar reasons against a similar enemy who has the same resources and weaponry and political views and trying to do the same thing. As a result, the U.S. had to make a political point and do a full-scale invasion and by democratizing the area, thereby ‘saving’ the people, glorifying itself and showing how ‘right’ it is.
What it has caused is another cold war. And, just like the cold war, we are now on ‘eternal vigilance’ against another imagined unseen enemy that “might” attack one day. Just as we saw in the past, billions are being spent for this.
Accusation And Blaming – The ‘Victim Of Paranoia’
The paranoia has caused a tendency to false accusations which are generally unfounded and false. People have been accused of being oppressors, tyrants, and other things who are not. This shows how the paranoia has created a tendency of blind expression of the paranoia, often at other peoples expense. In effect, what it has created is a whole new form of victim, a ‘victim of paranoia’. Of course, all these accusations use the standard cold war themes as their justification (oppression, freedom, etc.). In effect, the cold war mentality has caused something like a shooting match of accusations and blaming of people. Common cold war era victims of this blame include:
- The government.
- The “establishment”.
- “White society”.
- The male.
- Any authority figure.
But the ‘victim of paranoia’ can go beyond them to every people so that anyone can become a victim of paranoia. As a result, this new ‘victim of paranoia’ has created new fears in this society, basically of being dragged down by other peoples paranoia. Now that the cold war has allowed people to justify their paranoia with legal thinking their paranoia have legal ‘power’. Because of this, people have developed a fear of this new ‘power’. In many cases, these fears are of personal problems and personal issues. As a result, it has created a form of what I jokingly call “politically justified neuroses”, of using the political/legal system to justify a personal issue.
This paranoia has caused a number of fears such as:
- The fear of offending. There is a general fear in this country that you have to be careful of what you say and do, particularly around certain people. It appears like a great damper on people, inhibiting peoples association. This shows how the fear of other peoples fears is affecting social relations. Most people, though, have gotten used to it. In fact, they have gotten used to it too easily.
- There has become a fear of being sued. Continually the fear of lawsuits is being stated . . . and for just about anything. In some cases, I’ve even heard people express worry over helping a person. I know people who have seen rights violations in just about anything. The best example are feminists.
Hate, Malicious Intent, Violence
The “cold war sickness” has caused great misconception about ‘hate’ and what it is. A common line, during the cold war, was that not only wars but all problems between people was caused by ‘hate’. This has caused a great fear and terror about any form of hatred at all. I speak of this as the ‘hate myth’.
The fear and paranoia of hate is often so bad that any supposed ‘symbol’ of ‘hate’ is despised and, in some cases, prohibited. A good example are any form of gun, hunting, and kids playing ‘war games’. I’ve heard numerous people say that these “instill violence and hatred in children” like its some horrible thing . . . I guess it might cause another cold war, huh? I’ve seen many people (usually female) who are frightened of guns, hunting, or anything that even resembles the situation of warfare. There has even been great condemnation of very physical sports, such as football and boxing, for the same reason. Basically, there has developed a fear of any form of violence even to the point that any hint of violence is bad because of the fear that it promotes hate.
The ‘hate myth’ has caused a number of things:
- It has created a tendency to assume that things are being done for malicious reasons.
- It has created a tendency, often, of seeing the worst in people and situations.
With these viewpoints people find hate in things, seeing it in everything.
‘Specific Issues’ and Fixation
The cold war created a tendency to focus on ‘specific issues’ that are relevent to the times it was created but, yet, are maintained decades later. A specific era, for example, may create a unique issue (such as ‘peace and love’) that reflects the conditions of that decade only. These are often accentuated to the point of becoming a fixation that persist decade after decade. That is to say, they are maintained as if the problem still existing. In many ways, this is one of the most damaging quality of the “cold war mentality” as it doesn’t let the issues die. Decades after the cold war has ended many issues, which are no longer relevent, are being continued and maintained as if they are real issues. This gives the “post cold war mentality” a quality of being ‘out-of-date’ or ‘living in the past’.
Often, people treat these issues as if they cannot see anything else, as if life revolves around it. Typically these issues include typical cold war themes such as freedom, democracy, racism, love, peace, war, and such. These ‘specific issues’ are given special treatment and emphasis, even down to today, as if they are the only issues in the world and as if the world revolves around them. Many Americans, for example, seem to think that democracy (that is, voting) is all that matters in the rest of the world. If people vote then everything is OK and everyones problems will go away.
Some of the effects this fixation causes include:
- It makes it so that many Americans cannot see the ‘whole picture’ of whats going on. That is to say, they look at the world ‘with blinders on’, only seeing things they want to see.
- The fixation also makes it so that things are difficult to change.
- Because the cold war emphasizes specific issues other issues are neglected or forgotten. With some people, if it does not fit into the ‘specific issue’ classification, its not relevant. As a result, many issues are ‘tossed to the side’.
Many of the things that are viewed as ‘bad’ are generally based on assumptions which are based in situations that took place during the cold war era. In fact, it has created a ‘cold war bias’ toward certain people and situations that revolve around the same issues year after year. I can sit and condemn white people, for example, calling them names, and no one cares. But if I say “nigger” I’m practically condemned to death, whether it was meant in a bad way or not (FYI: to me, it means ‘black’ or a ‘black person’ and may or may not have a bad connotation, such as calling someone a “boy” can be said in a good or bad way). I’ve always said that this continual association based on historical circumstance is a form of discrimination in itself.
The ‘Evil’ of Humanity
The threat of nuclear annihilation created the idea that humanity is inherrently ‘evil’. Many movies, for example, had this as part of its storyline often describing humanity as nothing but “warring on their brother”, easily corruptable, or enslaving people. These themes were seen in practically all the Planet of the Apes movies and series that were made in the 1970s. Its also seen in many stories in the Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and so on. It appears a common theme with many science fiction movies, such as 2010. These often border on ‘anti-war’ sentiment and statements reflecting the cold war panic of the era it was made.
This created a tendency to assume ‘evil’ in peoples actions. In other words, they assume the worst in peoples actions and statements. A look, a statement . . . anything could become a target for peoples paranoia of ‘evil’ intent. What this ended up creating is a fear of other people and their intentions. In some ways, this has caused some of the darkest aspects of this sickness. Its created a great black cloud that hovers over society and social relations. Behind all the smiling faces, and supposedly good intentions in people, is a fear of other people . . . and a tendency to see the worst in things.
In some cases, the ‘inherently evil’ are certain people in society. These people could even be ‘targeted’ and automatically ‘assumed’ to have evil intensions. Examples of these that I’ve seen are ‘white people’, particularly the white American male, the government, businesses, police, and any form of authority. They are ‘automatically evil’ and are, therefore, ‘automatically a threat’. Often, they are moulded into themes of the cold war, made out as ‘tryants’, ‘oppressors’, etc. to cater to the cold war fear. Many movies of the 70’s, for example, made the government and police out as the ‘bad guy’. What no one seems to realize is that this act, in itself, is a form of ‘discrimination’ and ‘stereo-typing’ that they are usually claiming to condemn. Because of this, there has become a new form of ‘discrimination’ and ‘stereo-typing’ that has not been acknowledged. I see it all the time. In some sense, its become a ‘cold war justified discrimination and stereo-typing’ which is OK to do. If you do the same thing to someone else than its a horrible act.
Seeing the worst
The conditions of the cold war (paranoia, fear, etc.) created a tendency for people to “see the worst” in things. When anything happened they saw the worst in it. A boy playing “army”, for example, becomes something that “brings out violence”, a parent punishing the child becomes an example of “abuse”, and so on. This could go so far that there is often a tendency to see bad in things where there is no bad. In effect, they ‘create the bad’ as if pulling rabbits out of the hat. For some people, this became a way of life and many developed great ability in this. As a result of this tendency, it tended to cause a general pessimism in American mentality that continues to this day. Its probably no surprise that “seeing the worst” is particularly prevalent in areas that were “hot subjects” during the cold war such as politics and society. Much of the ‘disputes’, ‘controversy’, ‘debate’, ‘arguments’, etc., that are found in these areas, are generally a result of people “seeing the worst” in things. In other words, if people didn’t think that way there probably wouldn’t be as many conflicts.
One interesting aspect of this is that the ‘great cause of peace and love’, that was seen during the cold war, tended to create a justification of “seeing the worst”. In other words, it helped give this way of thinking a relevance and truth. This is because it was associated with the rebellion and protests that were prevalent from the late 1960’s on. Much of these were based, in actuality, in “seeing the worst” in government, such as with the Vietnam war or the Watergate scandal. Because of this, it made “seeing the worst” a ‘great cause’, so to speak, and inspired people to do more of it, which many did. It is for this reason that its not uncommon to see the “seeing the worst” way of thinking associated with a ‘great cause’ like freedom or democracy.
“Re-enacting the American Revolutionary war”
The cold war, and its call of nationalism, created in the U.S. a tendency to value or, rather, overvalue its ideals (often to ridiculous lengths). One aspect of this is the tendency to do what I call “re-enacting the American Revolutionary war”. What this refers to is a tendency to interpret everything as being another American Revolutionary war. As a result, they tend to see certain themes that they see as inherrent in the American Revolutionary war, such as:
- An “image of tyranny”.
- An “image of the oppressed”.
- An “image of the oppressed fight against tyranny”.
- An “image of achieving freedom from tyranny”.
What they end up doing is trying to “force” these “images” onto things, often everyday things, which typically have nothing to do with them at all. In that way, they actually create a “fantasized war” that does not exist. Not only that, it gives a one-sided interpretation of everything.
A person who develops this way of thinking will see these “images” in just about anything that happens (a glance, the spanking of children, the ‘command’ of morality, the ‘power’ of law, etc.). They begin to see them everywhere to the point that everything is interpreted that way. Everywhere someone is a “tyrant”. Everywhere someone is the “oppressed”. Everywhere there is the “fight for freedom”. There are people where this can become like a mania and the only way they interpret the world. The cold war helped foster this mania by ‘justifying’ this thinking, for the greater glory of American ideals.
Some of the effects of this thinking include:
- The ‘condemning’ of innocent people.
- The ‘condemning’ of innocent traditions and institutions.
- The upsetting of social relations by the ‘phantasized war’.
- The creation of non-existent conditions and realities.
- The creation of bad feelings between people.
In effect, this thinking tends to ‘drag other people down with it’, making it very disrupting in society. In addition, it establishes a strong pattern of ‘condemning innocent things’. In other words, it tends to cause a tendency of villanizing. In that way, it causes unnecessary tensions and even hatred. What this does is make this thinking a problem in itself. In many ways, much of the problems of the cold war were not caused by the cold war itself but by the thinking the cold war started, such as the “re-enacting of the American Revolutionary war” which, in the end, caused more problems than the cold war itself.
Civil Rights
The cause of ‘freedom and democracy’, which the cold war initiated, took an especially strong form in the Civil Rights Movement. Had it not of been for the cold war and its “cause” (glorifying America’s ideals) the Civil Rights Movement probably would never of happened. As a result of this, the Civil Rights Movement is intimately bound with the “cold war mentality”. Once it became associated with it, civil rights became an avenue for the “cold war mentality” often reaching high and might status. As a result, civil rights became an avenue for fear, frustration, anger, and other emotions coming from the cold war. In many ways, a lot of the Civil Rights Movement was nothing but saying “you’re not practicing what you’re preaching”. In that respect, it was one of the ways that the U.S. discovered that it wasn’t quite the “land of the free” as they thought. This made it so that many people in the U.S. began to ‘suck up’ to anything involving civil rights.
But, over the years, civil rights turned into nothing but a way to vent and, later, to take advantage of things. People began to discover that yelling “discrimination”, “rights violation”, and such got people to move . . . and why did people move? Because it referred to America’s ideals . . . and it was the cold war. As a result, people moved and got things done. Unfortunately, people began to move blindly and without thought, all in the name of ‘freedom and democracy’. Because of this blindness, civil rights now has a history of abuse! It abuses the law, politics, and national pride. It has so distorted, misused, and warped things that you can’t even belief it anymore. EVERYTHING violates everybodies rights. EVERTYTHING offends. Civil rights has turned into an avenue for some people to manipulate the system. In fact, the abuse of civil rights has reached crisis proportions!
The problem is that it only works for certain people reflecting ‘specific issues’ of the times (as I described above) – those which the cold war has given a ‘special’ relevence (black people, females, minorities, etc.). People not in any of those groups find it doesn’t work for the . . . in fact, they are probably the cause. The fact that it is only for certain people shows that it, itself, is ‘discriminatory’ and biased . . . these are the very things it claims to be combatting. And, so, basically civil rights has turned into what it was trying to destroy: discrimination. This is the ‘hidden discrimination’ of the Civil Rights Movement.
Legal and Political Distortion and their abuse
The cold war and Civil Rights, in particular has caused a distortion in law. Its also created a distortion in politics and political interpretation. This is so pronounced that I often speak of what I call the “cold war interpretation of law” and the “cold war interpretation of politics“. In other words, the cold war created a unique interpretation of law and politics as a result of its unique condition. In so doing, it altered it, creating a whole new perspective. That is to say, it ‘twisted’ the original ideas around to fit the cold war era. The problem is that this may of been fine and dandy during the cold war, but it has become out of date in the post cold war world. Its because of this that I have emphasized that we need to acknowledge that the cold war created a unique interpretation of the law and politics and that these are not relevant in the post cold war world. To put it another way, we need to create a “post cold war interpretation of law and politics” and do away with many cold war themes. This more or less says that each era creates a unique interpretation of the law and politics.
Unfortunatly, throughout the years, many people have capitalized on the distortions in law and politics that the cold war caused. One could almost say that a whole ‘industry of cold war distortion of law and politics’ has been created. Its probably still a some odd billion a year industry to this day. Its created many avenues for monetary wealth, such as with lawsuits, or to get ones way, such as with immigrants or minorities. This abuse has gone so far that it has started, and allowed, people to take advantage of the U.S. and its people . . . billions upon billions of dollars has been wasted and many people have practically gotten away with murder because of this. All you got to do is say ‘discrimination’ or ‘rights violation’ and you’ll get your way here . . . that is, if you’re the correct type of person (such as a minority).
Its become apparent that there has developed great abuse as a result of the cold war and its “way of looking at things”. In my opinion, this abuse, or its extent, has never been acknowledged or fully recognized for what it is nor has its damaging effects been looked at. One reason for this is that much of this abuse has been allowed to persist because it brings in themes of national pride (equality, freedom, etc.) that no one dares to contradict with an argument. As a result, people just look away, even when they know its wrong or a distortion or that there is another way of looking at it. I jokingly call the “cold war side-glance” meaning that the bringing up of cold war themes automatically makes it right, even when we know its wrong and knowing this, we look away from it as a result . . . the only action we can take. In this way, we help persist the lie of the abuse and distortion the cold war started. The “cold war side-glance” is still very prevalent. Despite what Americans say, they actually “look away” at many things in life and, in their great democracy, allow many abuses to continue by continually “looking away” from certain things.
Anti-Authority and Blind Rebellion
Its created a tendency to be authority condemning. In fact, this has gone on so far that it has made it so that there cannot be anyone ‘in charge’ anymore. If there were then it would violate someones rights. A person in any authority, such as a policeman or Senator, must walk on pins and needles because of this. Because authority is to ‘blame’ authority is often viewed as inherrently corrupt and evil, despite the fact that there may be no proof of this.
This tendency to condemn authority has caused a tendency to blind rebellion. America, even, practically glorified this act, often saying it is an act of a ‘free-spirited person’. This image would be popularized in many American movies, particularly in the 1970’s.
Creating A Society Where No One Is In Control – Breaking down society
The “cold war mentality” basically created a system where no one can be in control anymore. Since everything is oppressive, they have created policies, laws, and viewpoints that practically outlaw things like someone in charge, social hierarchy, a morality, right and wrong, etc. In effect, nothing can be ‘controlling’ anymore. What this has done is caused a breakdown in American society. The reasons for this is that many of these things (such as social hierarchy and morality) are required for a society to work. As a result, the “cold war mentality” has basically created an anti-society philosophy.
Self-Glorification, idealism, the creation of a false reality
Because this became a ‘war of philosophy’ the U.S. saw nothing but “greatness” in itself and its ideals. This is part of how it defended itself, of how it made itself ‘right’. In so doing, they made out many American values larger than they were and more influential than was ever intended, almost to the point of a religion. This created a tendency of great self glorification. This often got to the point of ridiculousness. At times, even, the ideas of ‘freedom and democracy’ was almost turned into a religion. In fact, oftentimes a place where they display the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other political documents is called “Freedom Shrine”. I’ve even jokingly said that they should start making sacrifices to the Constitution.
Because of the self-glorification there became a tendency to be ideal centered. This could get so bad that the everything was compared to the ideal, as if the ideal was reality. Anything that happened, even in other countries or times, would be compared to this ideal. If it didn’t “match up” it would be condemned or ridiculed in some way. I know, I’ve seen it many times.
One of the effects of being ideal centered is that it created a tendency to be reality denying. That is to say, they put the ideal before reality. In fact, there is a tendency to make out the ideal as reality causing a great deal of denial of how the world works. A good example is the cold war term “racism”. I’ve often tried to explain to people that a lot of “racism” is actually a normal psychological fact. People tend to be apprehensive, for example, of different people. This isn’t because of hatred (remember the ‘hate myth’?) or bad or malicious intentions necessarily. Its the way it is. Well, try explaining something like that to Mr. Cold War American who asserts that the world, and nature, works according to the American Constitution.
Because of this, there is a tendency to create a false reality with the “cold war mentality”. By this, they have practically fabricated stories about things, people, and the government that are completely false. In fact, during the cold war a whole false world view has been created by America which does not exist. All this, of course, based on Amerian ideals. One version of this is that the whole world is fighting for freedom from their evil tyrannical governments. These governments must be overthrown and a democratic government be intalled where people can vote. Once people can vote everyone will be happy. I knew one man who said that “Iran is probably looking at Iraq and are scared shitless because the people in Iraq can vote” . . . yeah, I’m sure they are . . . the glorification of America’s values . . . Another version I see is that the whole world is miserable. Yeah, that’s right, everyone else in the world is living in horrible wretched conditions . . . its amazing the world can survive at all. I still hear people say that “we should be thankful we live in the U.S.” I know people that see nothing but bad in any other country, no matter what . . . they as if look for it . . . better to glorify themselves with.
There is also an extensive myth, particularly in the military, that the world is as if plotting against us. Because of this we must endlessly “thank” our soldiers and put them on a pedastal. Just the other day I saw a bumper sticker that said “my son is defending our freedom”. What? . . . Our we being threatened that much? Freedom from what? I guess I must be stupid as I don’t see this supposed threat. Are people really so plotting to take away our freedoms that we have to make a big deal about it? So what are these people who threaten us saying, “let’s go take away the freedoms from the American people and set up a tyrannical government”? I don’t think so. In actuality, this is just another continuation of the cold war mentality reflecting the time when the great Soviet Union was poised and ready to attack and, of course, take away our precious American freedoms. In reality, the soldiers now fight for ‘political expedience’ than by any real threat of freedom in the U.S. but the cold war line is so much better and it has more meaning so lets make it out as if there is a plot to take our freedoms. Lets fabricate an image of a whole world ready to attack us. Lets fabricate a world where everyone wants to take our freedoms away too. I once talked to a person, some years ago, that said that “the people of the world want to take away America’s freedom because they are jealous they don’t have what we have” . . . yeah, right. That statement reflects definate traits of the “cold war mentality”. It has a nice obvious self-glorification . . . and a nice way to continue the ‘threat’ to further that self-glorification, but its not true, its a false reality.
As a result of the fear of war there has created a tendency for some people to create a false world of peace and love. They emphasize nothing but peace and love, turning it into something like a religion. No better example of the association between peace and love to the cold war then the statement “make love, not war” by John Lennon. This shows how there is a forcing of peace and love. I’ve even heard people say that peace and love must be forced onto people. In addition, I’ve seen people emphasize the importance of teaching peace and love to avoid a war. Of course, the war they speak of is a nuclear war, the war of annihilation, which caused this whole problem to begin with.
Taking Things Too Seriously
One can see that this fear, panic, and self-righeousness causes a tendency to take things too seriously. Any remark, any word, anything that offends, is taken to ridiculous proportions and typically blown out of proportion. This, often, reflects a ‘tense’ and ‘worried’ state of mind, reflective of the cold war condition. Many people will see abuses in everyday things and statements as a result. For some people, such as black people and females, there is a tendency to get offended over the smallest thing, often nothing at all (as I, myself, have seen many times). Typically, the defense is to bring up cold war themes, such as equality, hate, racism, and such. In fact, how people ‘defend’ their taking things too seriously often reveals if it is cold war based.
But this has gone on so long that it has created a tendency of endless stress for some people. In many ways, it has caused great pointless unhappiness, worry, and concern. The fact that this has happened shows how the “cold war mentality” has infiltrated into everyday life. It has often created a general ‘paranoid sense’ in many people, who automatically assume other people, the government, and the world are seeking to hurt them in some way.
Endless Squandering
The cold war has caused and justified a tendency of endless squandering of money and resources by the U.S. government. This still goes on today. To me, this has actually become a form of abuse. No other country in history has squandered the peoples money and resources as much as the U.S. government has. Again, the squandering is done for ‘cold war era’ issues such as:
- The threat of war.
- Racial problems or problems relating with immigrants or non-white people.
- Making the U.S. look good to the rest of the world.
- Catering to special groups and interests.
The cold war set a pattern of thinking and policy during the cold war that continue on to today.
AFTERTHOUGHT
In actuality, the “cold war mentality” has created a number of conditions:
- A distorted and warped way at looking at life and the world. It has created a false and erroneous view of life and the world.
- It also created what I would describe as a ‘broken down society’ that doesn’t work very well. This is because much of the cold war mentality undermined basic human social institutions, many of which have been here for thousands of years.
- A ‘broken down government’. In fact, the U.S. government is bankrupt and relies on loans to survive.
- A society and government that has lost its sense of priorities.
I actually tend to feel that the “cold war mentality” created a “cold war sickness” in many people, and the society in general. Despite the fact that it has been several decades since the cold war ended it is still very much alive. It has decreased somewhat but had a resurgence with the War on Terror. Luckily, it is not the active force it used to be but now appears more like a ‘remnant’, of a mentality people are not willing to let go. My feelings is that it will never be let go till the people who lived through it die off, as they persist the cold war with their mentality which was ‘forged’, so to speak, during the cold war.
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Copyright by Mike Michelsen
Mikes passing thoughts Blog 