Monday, July 6, 2009

fear coup

Fear can serve a useful purpose when it warns of actual danger, and prompts us to take action to alleviate the threat. The problem with much of the dread in this current circumstance is that it is manufactured solely to facilitate interpersonal manipulation.

It's much easier to push someone around when they are off balance, and the fear of imperfection leaves everyone wanting greater stability- something that proves most profitable to the shills and their masters.

Being heavy or trans or old or different isn't inherently dangerous, but the perception that these characteristics warrant abhorrence prompts not only disdain but sanctified violence; for although no one can fully attain the ever shifting standards of beauty and style, everyone can inflict pain on those who fail- if for no other reason than to defect attention from their own shortcomings. Instead of being recognized as craven behavior, public denouncement of non-conformity is lauded for affirming social values, even as it diminishes and destroy the society it purports to cherish.

When fear becomes continuous, it loses its value; the constant alarm tends to be ignored, even when the threat is real. With the inability to distinguish between clear and present danger and contrived dread, comes a lust for the one element that is seen to provide mastery of the situation : power. Perhaps control over one's self is unattainable, but with enough money, fame, violence, etc., order (no matter how dismal) may maintained by controlling others.

The problem, however, is that power creates its own fear- fear of its loss, fear of greater power- which demands ever more power to control. This path leads down into the mire of terror; where all the conformity and power imaginable aren't enough to prevent being taken over and pulled under by fear.