High Anxiety

Orcinus starts the trail:

Lifton then goes on to examine these traits not only in the context of the public reaction but in that of American leadership, Bush particularly. He limns, quite correctly, the following in Bush:

-- Anxiety and belligerence, noting that "when leaders respond belligerently, they may tap the potential of their people for amorphous rage."

And so anxiety manifests itself:

Dear Chairman Tauzin:

We write to express our support for the provision in the House version of H. R. 4, the Energy Policy Act of 2002, to allow oil and gas exploration in 2000 acres of the coastal plain of the 19-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We think that the possibility that oil supplies from the Persian Gulf states could be disrupted because of U.S. military intervention in Iraq makes the case for developing new domestic petroleum supplies urgent and compelling, although we recognize that it will take several years for production to begin in ANWR. The Congress should exercise more foresight in this regard than President Clinton did in 1995 when he vetoed similar legislation to open the coastal plain to exploration.

...

Sincerely,

Myron Ebell
Competitive Enterprise Institute

Grover Norquist
Americans for Tax Reform

...

Alan Caruba
National Anxiety Center

---

It’s not that there aren’t huge amounts of natural gas. The problem is that access to it has been effectively blocked. "We’re not running out of natural gas, and we’re not running out of places to look for natural gas," says Keith Rattie, president of Questar, an energy developer. "However, we are running out of places we are allowed to look for gas."

So, what else can we do but alert psychologists that anxiety as a diagnosis needs some rethinking. Stupidity, naivete, and kool-aid addiction may fit the bill better. As an untapped resource, the supply looks endless.