The goal of this blog post is to encourage people to consciously think about and consider the concept of paranoia, which is a form of fear, and how it relates to 9/11. (as well as other fears, real, perceived, and/or irrational)

Specifically, how living in a heightened state of sustained fear, whether in the form of paranoia, or other fears and anxieties, negatively affects a person's thought processes, outlook, belief systems, and, inevitably, our behaviors.

And how understanding more about these issues gives us more control over them, and allows us to not be unduly affected by them in the negative sense. As much as humanly possible, of course.

We often hear certain words and phrases thrown around when discussing various issues regarding 9/11, including "paranoia", "fear-mongering", "the politics of fear", "the government's use of fear as a tool", "culture of fear", etc. It has been my experience, however, that they are often used by people in a monkey see–monkey do manner, if you will, without (enough) breadth and depth of understanding.

Their's nothing terribly wrong with this, since we all do this to some degree. We can't be completely knowledgeable, or perhaps even sufficiently knowledgeable, about everything we discuss, and in those discussions, the terms and phrases and concepts and ideas we espouse or use for discussion, argument, supposition, etc. Much of these uses are performed, and understood, "in context", to varying levels and degrees and manners. (like when you pretty much know what a word means, and can use it in context, usually correctly, but you can't really give an accurate definition that would be close to what you would find in a dictionary, as merely one example)

This is partly due to how our minds work, and what allows us to all communicate, basically in agreement, with focused definitions and qualifications when needed when we need to be more accurate to make sure we agree as closely as possible when that is our aim and desire.

In that end, here are a couple of links I hope people will look at and read. It never hurts to review. And, in the sense of "We all have something to offer, and we all have much to learn", it also does not hurt to self-educate in a more formal manner from time to time, rather than "picking it up as we go along".

The first is a link to a wikipedia article on "paranoia". (I know — "the evil wiki", as I often refer to it — but it does have value as a quick reference)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia

And here is an interesting essay on "fear".

http://www.frankfuredi.com/pdf/fearessay-20070404.pdf

I am by no means an expert on this subject, or perhaps even well enough versed to write this blog. But I do have an interest in the subject, and know something about it. I hope others can and will refer us to more articles in their replies, and help move the discussion along to all of our benefit.