Keller @ Large: There's A Paranoia Epidemic

BOSTON (CBS) - Following the news this week, I can't get an old song out of my head.

It's been fifty years since Buffalo Springfield recorded the song "For What It's Worth," and as a social observer songwriter Stephen Stills was way ahead of his time.

The lyrics include this passage:

"Paranoia strikes deep/Into your life it will creep/It starts when you're always afraid/You step out of line, the man come and take you away."

Paranoia – "excessive suspicion of the motives of others…the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others, [sometimes leading] to disturbances of consciousness and aggressive acts."

Does this remind you of anything?

There's a paranoia epidemic going on, and you can see it everywhere you turn.

We talked Wednesday about it infecting police/community relations, and our political debates, if you can call them that anymore.

But here's just a short list of the things we���re paranoid about these days: terrorists; mosquitos; airbags; immigrants; refugees; politicians; government; identity theft; pitbulls; each other.

I'm all for reality-based skepticism. But we can't go on this way.

Don't forget, "For What It's Worth" was written about something relatively trivial, the 1966 Sunset Strip riots in LA over a 10 p.m. curfew being imposed in a nightclub district.

So, nowadays, if we're going to be fearful, let's try to make sure it's about something legitimately fearsome.

Listen to Jon's commentary: