A climate of fear

Sometimes, the rather unremarkable events of our lives reveal interesting things about the kind of society we live in. This, I suppose, is the basis of social history. After 9/11, most pundits proclaimed that the world was entering a new era. I sometimes wonder whether this was true, and whether the ubiquitous phrase "post-9/11" can ever have any real explanatory power. It's interesting to see how far these labels can be accomodated to everyday happenings.
Every weekday, I get an email from the BBC telling me which stories are going to appear on that evening's "Newsnight" - a kind of current affairs-analysis programme. Today, for the first time in two years, the Hotmail spam filters thought it was a piece of junk mail and sent it to the "junk" folder. But why?
The originating address has not changed. Nothing was significantly different about the email in fact, except that the subject line of today's email reads "NEWSNIGHT SECURITY DEBATE" instead of the usual "In tonight's programme." Clearly, having the word "security" in the subject line sets Hotmail's junk alarm bells ringing.
It's understandable when you think about it. Home security, financial security, psychological insecurity (usually about penis size) and - now and again - even Homeland Security are the staples of junk emails.
If the marketers who use junk emailing to send messages are focusing on security so much that the word itself suggests "junk," then what does this tell us about the world we live in? Pretty obviously it tells us that we live in a world in which we are constantly being informed of new reasons why we ought to be insecure - why we ought to be afraid. And it isn't only crime, terrorism and war, it's every element of our lives. If I don't buy the nicer-scented but more expensive toothpaste, will the pretty boy/girl want to kiss me? If I don't get plastic surgery will anyone take any notice of me? If I don't have the branded shoes, will the other kids laugh at me? If I don't eat the cholesterol-reducing margerine (which in my local supermarket is 400% more expensive than the regular stuff), will I collapse before I'm 35? If I don't get the best mortgage will I end up destitute? And so on...
There are two important purposes for fear - the first is that it is about the best marketing tool there is. The second is that it discourages critical analysis of society - ensuring that the political status-quo remains unchallenged, because our brave leaders, despite their minor flaws, are the only ones who can deliver us from the threat of terrorism, or weapons of mass destruction, or immigrants, or some cataclysmic combination of all three.
In other words, it serves the interests of large corporations and the political-economic system that primarily to ensures that they thrive.

Perhaps this isn't post-9/11 at all then. The manipulation of people by fear has far more vintage than 3 1/2 years. But the terror produced by the events since that date is making the system all the more effective.
Even the Hotmail spam filters have realised this. It's time we did too.