http://www.redress.cc/global/pjballes20070724


Mass paranoia

The Israeli-US threat to the worldBy Paul Balles*24 July 2007Paul J. Balles argues that US and Israeli paranoia threaten to lead the entire world to oblivion Paranoia is a psychotic disorder characterized by delusions of persecution with or without grandeur, often strenuously defended with apparent logic and reason. It involves an extreme, irrational distrust of others.That definition of paranoia applies not only to individuals; it also fits large groups of people, like the disastrous gathering of people in Jonestown, Guyana, who killed themselves with cyanide poisoning.The Sci-Tech dictionary, by McGraw Hill describes paranoia as having “...properties of suspiciousness, fearfulness, hostility, hypersensitivity, rigidity of conviction, and an exaggerated sense of self-reference".The Medical Encyclopedia says, "Paranoid individuals constantly suspect the motives of those around them, and believe that certain individuals, or people in general, are ‘out to get them’.”While paranoia in individuals has no known cure, it can be controlled with medication. Group paranoia has no known treatment. Thus, if a group like those following the dictates of cult leader Jim Jones succumbs to paranoia, it's incurable.Not only is it incurable, it's exceptionally dangerous to members of the group as well as to others in contact with the group. When the group happens to be a nation, the dangers become even greater.The entire Cold War was an expression of national paranoia on the parts of both America and Russia. As soon as both sides in the Cold War relaxed, the US started its moves to create paranoia through its threatening activities.The US brought virtually the whole Warsaw Pact into NATO, a real threat to Russia. America gave up its policy of deterrence for one of pre-emptive attacks and occupations.The US backed successful revolutions in Serbia, Ukraine and Georgia. Now it has announced it will establish a missile defence system in Europe.The “hawks” that surround Bush have abandoned the “deterrence” policy of the past, and now believe that a nuclear war can be “won” by the United States. This is madness and it needs to be taken seriously.Paul Craig Roberts asks, "Is the approval lavished on Republican presidential candidates, who are willing to use nuclear weapons as means of terrorizing Muslim peoples, an indication that the American people have morphed into inhuman monsters?"He then asks, "If not, what does it indicate? Ignorant fanaticism? Paranoia? Blind hatred? The belief that no one is of any value but Americans?" Perhaps it's all of the above, but the kind of reasoning heard, however illogical, reeks of paranoia.Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation", Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut suggested that the US should consider attacking Iran to keep it from training and supplying insurgents and foreign fighters in Iraq, as well as to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Pure paranoia!Norman Podhoretz, the godfather of the American neo-conservative movement wrote, "It now remains to be seen whether this president ... will find it possible to take the only action that can stop Iran from following through on its evil intentions both toward us and toward Israel. As an American and as a Jew, I pray with all my heart that he will." Paranoid delusions!In an article called "Get ready for World War III", Paul Craig Roberts writes: "Iran has signed the non-proliferation pact and is willing for the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the nuclear energy program. President Bush, however, dismisses all facts and assurances and looks willing to attack Iran based on nothing but Israel's paranoia."The two nations, The USA and Israel, are as paranoid as the Jim Jones cult that led to the murder/suicide of over 900 people. Let us pray that neither nation manages to lead us all into a Jonestown suicidal mission.
*Paul Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for 38 years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.