Trading on Fear

Here are the lyrics of a song from "Weekend in the City", the new CD from Bloc Party. The song is called Hunting for Witches:

I was sitting on the roof of my house with a shotgun
And a six-pack of beer, six-pack of beer, six-pack of beer

The newscaster says the enemy's among us
As bombs exploded on the 30 bus
Kill your middle-class indecision
Now is not the time for liberal thought

So I go hunting for witches
I go hunting for witches
Heads are going to roll
I go hunting for witches

In the Nineties
Optimistic as a teen
Now it's terror
Airplanes crash into towers, into towers, crash into towers

The Daily Mail says the enemy's among us
Taking our women and taking our jobs
All reasonable thought is being drowned out
By the non-stop baying, baying, baying for blood

So I go hunting for witches...

I was an ordinary man with ordinary desire
I watched TV, it informed me
I was an ordinary man with ordinary desire
There must be accountability
Disparate and misinformed
Fear will keep us all in place

So I go hunting for witches...

I was an ordinary man...

According to songwriter Kele Okereke, the song was influenced by the terrorist attacks on London's transportation system in July of 2005 and the events of 9/11. Kele claims that "post-September 11, the media has really traded on fear and the use of fear in controlling people."

I think the song does an excellent job of exposing the current fearmongering about terrorism and terrorists as a modern day witch hunt. The media talks about the perpetrators of these heinous crimes as if they were ordinary people who lived and worked with us. I suppose this is mostly true, but the problem is that the media (intentionally or not) exaggerates the extent of the threat. After having watched the news or read the paper, it is easy to get the impressiong that this is an epidemic. Even worse, it is difficult to avoid the trap of generalizing Muslims as terrorists. We of course all know how absurd it is to think that, but the media seems to make this suggestion. They're not trying to do this, they're reporting the news as it happens, but what's not said by the media can be as influential as what is said.

The moral of the story: take what you read with a grain of salt. No story in any medium is the full story. Consider what is not being said, and consider who's not saying it. The media is good, but as with anything, you must learn how to interpret it.

Thanks Kele.