I awake to find the flag ripped and hanging limply from the wall. The thick blanket, the one that keeps me warm, is stuffed into a corner against the far wall; I shiver under the thin sheets, cold night air pouring through the open window inches away. The books on the side table are strewn about the room, along with papers and dust-covers that have been placed strategically about the floor.
Vague memories of vivid nighttime dreamscapes flourish as I prepare breakfast before diving back into the deep psyche, where they will mold and fester until their next resurfacing.
Is this torment fleeting and temporary, or will it stay with me into the future? Will I awake bruised and shaking even if I satisfy some of the more nagging wants that slumber in the dark recesses of my soul? I think I will, for the dreams are nothing new; they were with me as a child; into adulthood they have lasted; there seems no end in sight. I am not afraid, for in them I do things otherwise impossible, and I spend time with the people who wish not to spend time with me, lost loves and failed conquests, forgotten friends and faceless enemies.
In my dreams I am free to fly and maim and kill and race, defying the laws of physics and riding the great diving skywhales until my beeping cellphone cries dawn.
Wake me not before my time, but leave me to my sleep and tortured dreams.
Ultima Ratio Regum.
JP
americanifesto.com | updated Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday
17 November 2010
02 November 2010
mechanism: fear
Few mental states are more dangerous than that of fear.
A person living in fear of threats real or imagined will make decisions not based on rational, systematic analysis, but on preconceived notions that act as a lens through which reality is seen as full of terrible things.
I have used a simple phrase many times in the last decade to calm rising fears and thus, I hope, keep a clear and open mind. Lao Tzu, in the Tao Teh Ching, says: Must I fear what others fear? What abysmal nonsense this is.
Indeed, people are disposed to be afraid of things, a condition most likely inherited from our distant ancestors who needed that fear to keep them on guard from beasts and wild men, and whose memories of hunger and months of freezing winds propelled them to store food and to weatherproof their lodgings.
American society is a safe and peaceful one: we crack down on slight infractions and wage our wars overseas, allowing us to live our lives in relative quiet. But, like many other holdovers from our past, like obesity and blood-lust, we cannot shake our fear, and we sometimes become its victim.
Take our current political discourse. Starting with 9-11 and the release of the federal fear-meter (which was always kept near the highest level), and continuing into today's fear-mongering punditry, fear has become as ubiquitous in our national conversation as the shadowy, largely misused demand for freedom.
Streamlined fear-mongery is dangerous because: it is exhausting; it provides no clear solution to the given problem, rather highlighting the danger and thus giving it power; it gradually seeps into every chambers of a person's mind, crippling them by turning them into a purely reactionary and weak being.
Fear is with us to stay. We cannot control this ancient tool once necessary for survival, but we can reach out to those among us who operate out of fear, people who kill doctors and try to blow up abortion clinics, people who believe that our president is both Muslim and foreign-born, and let them know that their aggression will not stand, that their fears are unfounded and that they have an obligation to those around them to unwind their twisted brains and calm the fuck down.
The fearless man is he who can embrace his fears and thereby understand them.
We are not a nation of fearful, reactionary weaklings. We are a strong, intelligent people who can (and must) work together for the benefit of the human race, who do not swallow the loudest man's snake oil and proclaim it good, but who read the label, think for a moment, have a sniff, and toss it unused to the ground.
So, the next time someone starts ranting about all the scary things he sees in the world, turn off the TV and go face your fears head-on.
Ultima Ratio Regum
JP
A person living in fear of threats real or imagined will make decisions not based on rational, systematic analysis, but on preconceived notions that act as a lens through which reality is seen as full of terrible things.
I have used a simple phrase many times in the last decade to calm rising fears and thus, I hope, keep a clear and open mind. Lao Tzu, in the Tao Teh Ching, says: Must I fear what others fear? What abysmal nonsense this is.
Indeed, people are disposed to be afraid of things, a condition most likely inherited from our distant ancestors who needed that fear to keep them on guard from beasts and wild men, and whose memories of hunger and months of freezing winds propelled them to store food and to weatherproof their lodgings.
American society is a safe and peaceful one: we crack down on slight infractions and wage our wars overseas, allowing us to live our lives in relative quiet. But, like many other holdovers from our past, like obesity and blood-lust, we cannot shake our fear, and we sometimes become its victim.
Take our current political discourse. Starting with 9-11 and the release of the federal fear-meter (which was always kept near the highest level), and continuing into today's fear-mongering punditry, fear has become as ubiquitous in our national conversation as the shadowy, largely misused demand for freedom.
Streamlined fear-mongery is dangerous because: it is exhausting; it provides no clear solution to the given problem, rather highlighting the danger and thus giving it power; it gradually seeps into every chambers of a person's mind, crippling them by turning them into a purely reactionary and weak being.
Fear is with us to stay. We cannot control this ancient tool once necessary for survival, but we can reach out to those among us who operate out of fear, people who kill doctors and try to blow up abortion clinics, people who believe that our president is both Muslim and foreign-born, and let them know that their aggression will not stand, that their fears are unfounded and that they have an obligation to those around them to unwind their twisted brains and calm the fuck down.
The fearless man is he who can embrace his fears and thereby understand them.
We are not a nation of fearful, reactionary weaklings. We are a strong, intelligent people who can (and must) work together for the benefit of the human race, who do not swallow the loudest man's snake oil and proclaim it good, but who read the label, think for a moment, have a sniff, and toss it unused to the ground.
So, the next time someone starts ranting about all the scary things he sees in the world, turn off the TV and go face your fears head-on.
Ultima Ratio Regum
JP
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