ASIO is about to raise Australia’s terror level from medium to high. Apparently we are about to be inundated with Aussie ISIS combatants, and we all need to keep on our toes as the threat is very, very real! It hasn’t happened so far which renders the prospect somewhat abstract. The government would like to shift our axis of fear away from it’s cruelling budget and toward a shadowy underworld of fanatical extremists who are feverishly plotting to kill us all.Would our day-to-day lives actually be safer (or better) if we all adopted the hyper-vigilant cortisol arousal of a combat soldier? Because surely that is exactly what “raising the threat level” is suggesting we do?

Hyper alert wouldn’t have helped a single person in the world trade centre, or the sari club, being constantly on guard hasn’t been an effective defence in places where terrorism occurs frequently. When it has been thwarted it’s generally by normal people who just happened to notice something odd, and responded appropriately.  Isn’t this something that the vast majority of us would do automatically, regardless of the government rated “threat level”?

So what is the point of all this talk such rhetoric seems to have is increasing the level of racism directed toward people of middle eastern descent.  Statistically speaking we are far more likely to die crossing the road or in bed than a local terrorist.

So why is the Abbott government so intent on ramping up our levels of ambient anxiety? When it has been proven that ramping up the threat levels will not prevent anything?  It does however seem to effect the governments standing in the polls. When Tony bangs on about terrorist threats his poll ratings go up. When we turn our attention back to the budget and the broader economy his poll ratings go down. Thank god for ISIS, middle eastern dual nationals, airport security upgrades, ASIO terror alerts, and Murdoch’s unwavering commitment to keeping them in the forefront of the news!

While Abbott and Murdoch seem to revel in their ability to keep us anxious, the fact remains Australia is an extraordinarily safe country. It’s stupid to deny we wont ever have an attack on domestic soil, but I am saying it is a fools errand to be working ourselves into a permanent paranoid lather, or aligning ourselves with some mythical, quasi racist “team Australia” in order to prevent such an attack from happening.

FEAR WILL STOP US ENJOYING OUR LIVES the only perceptible upside is Tony’s position in the polls?