Violence

Violence, as in war, fist fights, harsh words, conscious manipulation or even mere refusal to listen, has always been popular. Its appeal rests on simplicity. Violence removes options from the board and leaves you with blessed few choices.
Gone are the times when freedom was the battle cry of the young and subversive. Today, just hearing the word raises hackles, for it comes associated with the White House and means very little, perhaps merely the choice between doing business or starving.
Still, we don't mind. We are scared of freedom. It is the agoraphobia of a man standing on a wide open plain and seeing a million directions he could choose. And they all look equally meaningless. Now, if only there were a wall cutting through it. Then all your decisions could be phrased in terms of it. You could climb over it, walk alongside it or away from it. Down from a million to a scant three. Now there you have something you can fit into your genetically inherited response system: Fight, flight or prevarication. And those are taken care of by your basic nature, unthinkingly...