Posts
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Fear
Many people are carrying an extraordinary amount of fear in their day-to-day lives. Countless times I have heard the elderly ladies in the locker room at the YMCA say they are afraid to be in there alone. They are afraid a predator will invade while they are getting dressed and nobody will hear them scream. My neighbor has pulled her kids out of the schools for fear of what could happen there, and has adopted a third watch dog. She now has a German Shepherd, a Pit Bull and an English Mastiff. She jumps through the roof when one of them barks, thinking it’s the predator she imagines hot on her trail. I can’t help thinking this fear comes from watching television. I call TV the fear machine. People don’t realize they are experiencing fear as entertainment. Right now our government is manipulating millions of people using fear tactics. Even the weathermen use fear as entertainment in their weather reporting. Zap zap zap we get hooked on high drama living. Back away from the fear machine and reclaim your freedom and birthright to think clearly! Read a reputable newspaper if you want to know the facts. Find out who your neighbors are so you can feel a little safer living on your street. But if you really want to have fear, have it about something worthwhile. Fear that you could die without ever having listened to your children, fear that you never followed through on your dream to write, or paint or play music, fear coming to the end of your life having postponed all of your dreams.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Emily,
What an amazing post. It is true that the tube is the fear machine. It just pumps out an endless stream of the stuff. And it is also true that when you get to know your neighbors, the world feels so much safer. When my babies were little, I used to have a fear that something would happen when Nguyen was at work... and THEN what would I do? But then I would remember that Mildred could watch the babies for a few minutes, if need be. Or Christine, or Monique, or Lori. It made me feel so much more secure in the world.
I have made it a kind of ministry to care for people when they are in a tough situations. I bring a sandwich to a friend who had heart surgery, some eggplant casserole for a couple with a new baby, or a lasagna to my friends who are moving and still living out of boxes. It's not that I expect them to repay me, but it makes me happy knowing that the world feels safer for all of us when we love each other that way.
Em - You sound like a tired old reporter on this one. You are right, of course, about the fear factor, especially the delivery system. What we may need to know is why fear has any control over us at all. Personally speaking, the only fear I have recently felt is from the Borat movie, in the scene where his ice cream truck is blinging, the bear is roaring and the children are running away screaming. Love, Gregg
Once again, your amazingly perceptive radar (Liskar, I'm calling it!) zeroes in on an issue that is so important but so ignored. Fear is such an imprisoner, and you are so right about the effect of television. I just watched The Matrix again for the first time in years and was reminded why that film worked so well - even if you don't buy the sci-fi conceit of the movie, the parallel to the way we live our own lives is so striking. Of course, in The Matrix, the characters were living in a falsely constructed banal, but benign world, when their "real" selves were existing in a horrible post apocalyptic world. I guess I'm seeing the oppposite of that - our falsely constructed Matrix is this Universe of Fear. It is a very effective imprisoner - of our psyches, our politics, our relationships. I really believe we could achieve a global revolution if we could as a species allow ourselves to turn away from that - unplug from the Matrix, if you will.
Post a Comment