Fear - A Useless Preoccupation
One of the most devastating aspects of being human is our preoccupation with, and our experience of living with fear. Fear demoralizes, withers, and destroys the central core of our humanity in both the young and the old. The best way to try to understand the cumulative effects of fear on the human spirit is to take a step towards death and then to peer into the endless abyss.
Fear is not difficult to identify. It can be found in the hollow, empty stare of a child who has unwillingly seen too much of the ugliness in life, a child who has suffered the emotional and physical pain of abuse and/or abandonment and all too often has given up on the possibility of living a good life and therefore desires only to embrace death. Fear can also be observed sitting on the shoulders of the old; their backs bowed and curved under its oppressive weight. Although the taste of fear is bitter, many cannot refuse it when offered and are inexplicably driven to drink from its fetid wellspring, and later left to suffer its debilitating effects. Fear floats like a silent, unseen killer over the landscape of life, feeding on the innocent and using the weak to spread its vile benediction of insecurity to perfect its oppression over mankind while demanding blind obedience from a frightened populace. Fear is the nursemaid of demogogues and tyrants, the life breath of small men intent on ultimate power and wealth.
Today, in these United States, fear reigns supreme. The widespread dissemination of this fear began with the expansion of the print media into televisied news reports. The media determined decades ago that fear sells and that in the face of rampant fear, logic simply disappears from the mental processe of a frightened and ill-informed populace. So, our airwaves have become filled with images of dark destruction, violence, and fear. The populace responded to this constant onslaught of fear by closing their windows and locking their doors. They also began to frame their windows and their minds with steel bars which led to the growth of accepted abusive police behavior against assumed enemies, all in the mistaken belief that this misplaced aggression and might would protect them in their communities from the hoardes of the great unwashed and the unknown. As the fear mounted in these communities, so did the power of the media as it routinely exploited those fears with a never ending stream of images filled with man's inhumanity against itself.
Soon, this dissemination of fear began to appear more in more in the political landscape and politcians began to use fear to manipulate voters. Politicians began using fear, at first, as the dissemination of half truths, always delivered with a homey famililarity, punctuated with a big warm, disarming smile. On the other hand, the voting populace endlessly searched for security and embraced the politicians and their lies as a cure all for all of their collective fears and insecurities. Politicians and media types have always been ardent students of the human condition and are well practiced at shifting or substituting fears to maintain a firm hold on the population who are distinctly too busy to read, analyze, understand, or interpret real dangers that might exist in their everyday real world.
The drumbeat of fear marches through our lives at a constant and mind numbing pace. Somewhere, everyday, a heinous act occurs against someone and the media ensures that we immediately feel the fear and pain of that distinct moment. We are so hyped on fear that our biology is so miscued to impending doom that we cannot find a way to escape this made up world of fear long enough to logically differentiate between real and imagined fears. The fear of everyday Americans of being at the mercy of a terrorist attack since 9/11 has reached illogical proportions. We were just as subject to a terrorist attack before 9/11 as we are today, and yet, many Americans walk around with an unreasonable fear and the belief that the president and his advisors can protect us from another devastating terrorist attack. This expectation of protection in the national mindset is the greatest verbal balm that politicians can offer a nation paralyzed by fear. The sad reality is that this inferred protection against any and all forms of terrorist aggression are as imaginary as the white knight who is supposed to have rescued the damsel in distress. Yet, millions of Americans voted for an administration that claims to be able to protect us from an unknown, subversive group whose greatest power resides in their ability to strike anywhere, at anytime without apparent motive or provocation. It can be likened to voting for a candidate who claims he/she can guarantee that you will live forever, unfettered by the prospect of eventual death.
The annals of history have recorded man's quest for security and these annals also recorded a history stained by the blood of generations of men intent on exercising their perogatives by affecting domination and power over less powerful groups. Looking at our collective progress over the milleniums, the one thing we have perfected is our ability to kill greater numbers of people, even from a distance without causing a ripple on our shores.
All men were given the ability to reason and to think, albeit in varying degrees. Yet, too many men feel comfortable acceding their power to a perceived "alpha male" to think for them and to act on their behalf. This tacit acceptance of someone else's power over our own means that we knowlingly agree to give up a part of our inherent humanity in trade for an invisible security. As long as men have the need to dominate other men; as long as men believe that their religious or their political beliefs have a higher standard than others, then all of our lives will always be plagued by dissension, mistrust, hatred, and fear.
Isn't it time we all stepped up to the plate to begin to fight our own fears and regain our personal humanity? Isn't it time we began acting on own on behalf, taking responsibility for ourselves and the world we live in? Isn't it time to reclaim our humanity, our right to live without?
Fear is not difficult to identify. It can be found in the hollow, empty stare of a child who has unwillingly seen too much of the ugliness in life, a child who has suffered the emotional and physical pain of abuse and/or abandonment and all too often has given up on the possibility of living a good life and therefore desires only to embrace death. Fear can also be observed sitting on the shoulders of the old; their backs bowed and curved under its oppressive weight. Although the taste of fear is bitter, many cannot refuse it when offered and are inexplicably driven to drink from its fetid wellspring, and later left to suffer its debilitating effects. Fear floats like a silent, unseen killer over the landscape of life, feeding on the innocent and using the weak to spread its vile benediction of insecurity to perfect its oppression over mankind while demanding blind obedience from a frightened populace. Fear is the nursemaid of demogogues and tyrants, the life breath of small men intent on ultimate power and wealth.
Today, in these United States, fear reigns supreme. The widespread dissemination of this fear began with the expansion of the print media into televisied news reports. The media determined decades ago that fear sells and that in the face of rampant fear, logic simply disappears from the mental processe of a frightened and ill-informed populace. So, our airwaves have become filled with images of dark destruction, violence, and fear. The populace responded to this constant onslaught of fear by closing their windows and locking their doors. They also began to frame their windows and their minds with steel bars which led to the growth of accepted abusive police behavior against assumed enemies, all in the mistaken belief that this misplaced aggression and might would protect them in their communities from the hoardes of the great unwashed and the unknown. As the fear mounted in these communities, so did the power of the media as it routinely exploited those fears with a never ending stream of images filled with man's inhumanity against itself.
Soon, this dissemination of fear began to appear more in more in the political landscape and politcians began to use fear to manipulate voters. Politicians began using fear, at first, as the dissemination of half truths, always delivered with a homey famililarity, punctuated with a big warm, disarming smile. On the other hand, the voting populace endlessly searched for security and embraced the politicians and their lies as a cure all for all of their collective fears and insecurities. Politicians and media types have always been ardent students of the human condition and are well practiced at shifting or substituting fears to maintain a firm hold on the population who are distinctly too busy to read, analyze, understand, or interpret real dangers that might exist in their everyday real world.
The drumbeat of fear marches through our lives at a constant and mind numbing pace. Somewhere, everyday, a heinous act occurs against someone and the media ensures that we immediately feel the fear and pain of that distinct moment. We are so hyped on fear that our biology is so miscued to impending doom that we cannot find a way to escape this made up world of fear long enough to logically differentiate between real and imagined fears. The fear of everyday Americans of being at the mercy of a terrorist attack since 9/11 has reached illogical proportions. We were just as subject to a terrorist attack before 9/11 as we are today, and yet, many Americans walk around with an unreasonable fear and the belief that the president and his advisors can protect us from another devastating terrorist attack. This expectation of protection in the national mindset is the greatest verbal balm that politicians can offer a nation paralyzed by fear. The sad reality is that this inferred protection against any and all forms of terrorist aggression are as imaginary as the white knight who is supposed to have rescued the damsel in distress. Yet, millions of Americans voted for an administration that claims to be able to protect us from an unknown, subversive group whose greatest power resides in their ability to strike anywhere, at anytime without apparent motive or provocation. It can be likened to voting for a candidate who claims he/she can guarantee that you will live forever, unfettered by the prospect of eventual death.
The annals of history have recorded man's quest for security and these annals also recorded a history stained by the blood of generations of men intent on exercising their perogatives by affecting domination and power over less powerful groups. Looking at our collective progress over the milleniums, the one thing we have perfected is our ability to kill greater numbers of people, even from a distance without causing a ripple on our shores.
All men were given the ability to reason and to think, albeit in varying degrees. Yet, too many men feel comfortable acceding their power to a perceived "alpha male" to think for them and to act on their behalf. This tacit acceptance of someone else's power over our own means that we knowlingly agree to give up a part of our inherent humanity in trade for an invisible security. As long as men have the need to dominate other men; as long as men believe that their religious or their political beliefs have a higher standard than others, then all of our lives will always be plagued by dissension, mistrust, hatred, and fear.
Isn't it time we all stepped up to the plate to begin to fight our own fears and regain our personal humanity? Isn't it time we began acting on own on behalf, taking responsibility for ourselves and the world we live in? Isn't it time to reclaim our humanity, our right to live without?
posted by taylorlee at 2:27 PM
1 Comments:
Well- put. And, Oh My God, You are SO right. it is scary to think of... but when we try to penetrate the minds of the blind-followers, they seem numb... How?? How to get through to them???
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