Edward Snowden Interview: 'There Is Still Hope - Even for Me'
A line I particularly liked (from the second segment):> "I think it is this new atmosphere of fear and that it won't change until we, as a public, learn to perform a new kind of alchemy and recognize fear when it is being presented. We need to learn to eat fear, to convert it into an energy that can be used to better a society rather than to terrorize and weaken it."A huge percentage of the modern news media is fear-based.  In the last U.S. presidential election, both candidates were running on largely fear-based platforms (fear of Mexicans on  one end, fear of Trump on the other.)  Even most political movements emphasize the terrible thing they're afraid of or angry about instead of actual changes that could be made to fix things.  This can't be how things keep working.I'm optimistic that we'll learn this "alchemy," though, for the simple reason that the onslaught of media-terror has become so absurdly intense that people can't help but become jaded.  The first time you hear about a murder in your area, it's terrifying; the second time, a bit more expected; what about the tenth?  The hundreth?  We're being asked to believe in so many terrible things at once that the human mind is just going to give up at some point.As long as we can lose fear without also losing concern, we'll be alright.