Simulposted at Daily Kos
“Fear is the mindkiller, the little death.”
Frank Herbert
Fear is the death of reason.
And we are soaking in it.
Everybody is afraid of something right now. The wingnuts are afraid of death panels and Kenyans. The Liberals are afraid of the Wingnuts bursting into flames and violence.
The Centrist Dems are afraid of the Leftist Dems, and the Leftist Dems are afraid that Obama and Rahm et al are selling them out. And everybody is afraid of the future right now, because the future is so unshaped. The Right is afraid that the world will change too much, and the Left is afraid that the world will change too little.
And at the center of all this fear is a man. A man whose supporters built up in to some kind Superman who can save us all from all of the problems we face (in order to get him elected)…Or on ther other side, a man who will destory America for the “Real Americans.”
A man, it turns out, who is just a man after all. A man who everyone on the Left and the Right think is in charge, thinks is so powerful that he can either order their granny put to death, or who they think is infallible enough to deserve their blind trust. Each side has their delusions about who this man is and each wants him to be powerful enough to either prove their fears right so that they can revolt, or wants him to be so powerful that they can stop thinking and working because he is in charge. But he is not in charge.
Chaos, the kind of chaos that is absolutely necessary for real Change to occur is the only thing in charge right now.
Chaos and the fear it brings.
In times of chaos and fear their is only one thing that everyone, on all sides, agree on…..SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!!!!
We MUST either fight or not fight, flee or not flee, adopt this startegy or condemn that strategy as the one that will be the final straw that KILLS US ALL!!!
My fear tells me one thing and I listen to it, your fear tells you another thing and you listen to it. I yell out my fear and you yell out your fear and our fears begin to fight. Then someone yells out that everyone should just calm down and our fears unite to turn and fight that person, whose fear has told them that this is all getting out of control and s/he must tell everyone to calm down and STFU.
We roil about in the mud of fear and chaos and yell and pull each others hair and there is only one winner….the fear itself.
Then we all get tired. Then something happens….as it always does….to calm or dissolve our fear. And we all return to some degree of rationality. But we are all then just a little more afraid, a little less trusting, and a little heavier burdened with grudges and resentments.
Which just makes it easier for the next wave of fear to grab us by the scruff of the neck and shake us all about.
In the past, in times of fear, we have looked to our leaders to step up. To calm the fears and to implement levelheaded solutions. That won’t work this time. Because we are coming out of a time, a time long enough to seem like an era, where the “Leaders” of society USED and encouraged fear, instead of quelling it. And in the process of using fear as a political and cultural tool, found it necessary to abolish what were once the court of last resort to address our fears…..facts.
Nothing is demonstrably true anymore. The RW is demonstrating that very vividly right now, in the form of the Birthers. But it is not limited to them. You throw a ‘fact’ at me, and I throw a contradictory ‘fact’ at you. If we don;t agree that those are ‘facts’….they aren’t. By definition. And George Bush and Karl Rove and Fox news have taught us all how to cast enough doubt on any fact to make it….not a ‘fact.’
So all we are left with is trust. The Wingers trust in Rush, The Centrists trust in Obama, and The Leftists trust that they will be sold out….again.
And all of us trust that our fears are justified, and that our fear is more important than the other guys fear.
And fear wins again.
Yeah, I have some ideas as to what we can do about it. The only problem is…. that the people who fear me will be sure I am lying, becuase that feeds their fear. And as we all can see with a casual glance, fear is always hungry. And there is always someone ready to feed it, if they think that will benefit them…or their fear.
So there is only one thing left to say, quoting one of our last true leaders, who was trusted by Most of the People, Most of the Time….and who Time has proved mostly to be right over the decades.
Perhaps it is the last fact left.
We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.
Or to rephrase it…..fear will not lead us out of chaos.
And there is only ONE person who can deal with YOUR fear.
