Call the cops on your neighbor, get a cookie

Try as I might, I can't keep myself from posting delicious nuggets from Bruce Schneier's blog. If your not reading it every day you should be ashamed of yourselves.
This current one is about the war on the unexpected. How citizens are encouraged to report everything that they see that doesn't seem right to them.
In this day and age, that basically means everything.
You really need to read this article. It is very insightful, and it gives further proof that society as we know it is going to hell. The terrorists have won. Shit, they don't even need to kill another person ever. We are already terrorized by our petty fear. Terrorists don't need to blow up planes to shut down airports. Just call in an anonymous tip, and you'll terrorize the travellers and authorities for hours or even days.
This has got to stop!
People, refuse to be terrorized! Refuse to believe that everything outside your own kitchen is out to hurt you. The world isn't as bad a place as people make it out to be.
Sure, people are assholes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are out to destroy civilization as we know it.
A bright example of this fear mongering (that was also linked from Bruce's article) is this campaign that you're supposed to call the cops whenever you see a parent holding a child's hand. Does holding your child's hand automatically mean that you're sexually abusing it? I'm going to go for "no" on that question, but if the societal tendencies today are to be believed, the answer to that question is "yes".
I used to think that people's stupidity was what would bring about the downfall of society, but I was wrong. It's people's unfounded fear that will ultimately cause the world to collapse.

Maybe if people weren't so dumb, they wouldn't believe in all this crap that the media machine churns out.

Childrens' books are for kids

When I was a kid, the stories we were told were things composed by people like H.C. Andersen or the Brothers Grimm. In our story, there was always a vile and wicked antagonist and a heroic, albeit not always smart, protagonist. There was always some form of monster under the bridge that would devour you for one reason or another.
The tales that kids are exposed to today feature nothing of the harshness and cruelty that we were brought up with. Sure, there might be a dragon or two, but there's always a comic punchline. Fairy tales don't scare kids anymore, and I foresee that becoming a problem when they grow up.
I think that if kids are not taught, in one way or another, that there are bad things out there in the world that can hurt them, then they might go out in life wearing nothing but the emperors clothes worth of mental protection, and when they actually encounter the harsh reality that is this foul year of our lord 2007, they will be in for a rude awakening.
Note that this is not the same thing as teaching kids that bad acts do not have any consequences (that me and my roommate have several discussions about, and can never agree on), but rather that bad things can happen to (supposedly) good people.

Their only saving grace is that people today can't refrain for beating the fuck out of each other and killing each other in the name of something or other (most often religion). I realize that the generation before mine raised their kids with the TV as the babysitter, but watching howdy doody and the CNN coverage from Iraq are two very different things. Maybe the horrors of the real world can teach the kids that there are things to be afraid of when they finally leave the nest, but you have to get them to watch the news first, and last time I checked, MTV did not broadcast the uncut video of the hanging of Saddam Husein.