The smell of fear is thick in the air these days.In Northampton a small group of demonstrators took to the streets this week to protest the opening of an adult-video store. The protest brought together an unusual coalition of feminists, religious conservatives, and just plain folks, warning their neighbors that a crime spree is on the way. DVDs of consenting adults bonking and cavorting with dramatic, real-life abandon apparently will incite residents to rob, pillage, and worse.
In Colorado the public-broadcasting affiliate cancelled a two-hour documentary on Marie Antoinette. The reason for the self-censorship was concern that the program, which reproduces 18th-century sketches of sexual activity relevant to the guillotined queen’s story, would incur Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fines.
On Beacon Hill, Governor Mitt Romney was so afraid of alienating right-wing voters in his undeclared race for the White House that he denied Harvard the services of the state police when the university recently hosted former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.
In New York City, Columbia University invited and then retracted its invitation to current Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinjehad to speak at its school of public affairs under a set of circumstances that can only be described as ambiguous. Columbia, upon reflection, feared that it could not adequately provide security. Opponents of the visit hailed the move as a reaffirmation of the university’s dignity and high moral purpose.
Meanwhile, in our nation’s capital, President George W. Bush all but condemned newspapers for publishing reports that intelligence officials now believe the war in Iraq decreases national security by inspiring the Islamic world to greater acts of terrorism. The act of reporting these facts, Bush intimated, not only gives aid to our enemies but jeopardizes our well-being and threatens to “confuse” the American people.
These are not odd, disconnected snapshots of our national life. They are highly representative. They are part of a larger picture: a disturbing mural of a nation that is afraid not only of others (often with very good reason), but fundamentally fearful of itself. Somewhere along the way, after winning the Cold War, after achieving unprecedented prosperity, after amassing more military might than history has ever been able to imagine, we’ve lost our collective sense of self-confidence.
Legend may hold that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave, but the very idea of sex is apparently enough to strike fear in the hearts of many — and not just the holy rollers. It’s not a secret that sex is big business. It’s bigger than General Motors, not that this is saying much given the once-mighty automaker’s current economic woes. (And, in case you didn’t know, GM and many other Fortune 500 companies diversified into adult films years ago.) The X-rated video-and-DVD business is bigger than all of Hollywood. It’s bigger than all professional sports teams. And while men are the primary consumers of sexual fare, women are active as well — accounting for 20 percent of the market — and are more likely, according to experts, to turn their fantasies into reality. These are well-known and well-reported facts. Why, then, are we so afraid? Why does the reality that so many seek consolation or inspiration from commercial sex arouse our insecurities? Are we so timid? So hypocritical? What, as a nation, are we afraid of?
