Are you frightened? (673 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.34 on 28 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by shandythedog (View user info) at 2008-05-13 19:32:44 EDT
The primary driving force in our society is fear.
Some degree of fear and caution is necessary to a balanced life, but in the society that we happen to live in now, in the early 21st century, fear has somehow become too dominant.
Many of the problems we face as a society and as individuals stem from this fundamental cause, and we appear to be trapped in a vicious circle. Our fear of becoming losers leads us to more competition. This ever-escalating competition in fact does create more and more losers (competition by nature involves more losers than winners), thus making us more frightened, thus leading to more fearful competition, and so on.
We would like to live in a world, and we would like our children to live in a world, where there was less fear.
And we believe that, in theory at least, this is quite possible. Sensible, simple, adjustments to some of our social and economic structures could make a huge difference.
But first of all we need to recognise and admit that our way of life has become too dominated by fear. Anxiety, tension, depression, alienation and all sorts of other 'nervous disorders' are in plague proportions. Essentially, these words are another way of saying 'fear'. But we don't use the word fear, because, ironically, we are scared of it. Admitting to fear makes you a loser or a coward. Nobody would dream of going to a doctor and saying 'I'm suffering from fear. I'm frightened. Help me.'
In fact, we are frightened. We are frightened that interest rate rises mean we won't be able to pay our mortgages,we are frightened we won't be able to afford petrol, we are frightened that we won't be able to afford a car with proper safety features, we are too frightened to go to the dentist beause it will cost so much and we might get ripped off and cheated, we are frightened we are not being good parents to our children, we are frightened their education is not good enough and they will be losers instead of winners, we are frightened the australian economy will fall behind and we will become a poor country, we are frightened of other countries, we are frightened our relationships will collapse and we will be ruined in the divorce courts, we are frightened that we can not 'perfom' sexually, we are frightened we will become drug addicts or aclholics, we are frightened of other people so we drink and take drugs addictively, we are frightened of public speaking, we are frightened that if we don't have plastic surgery and our breasts are too small no one will love us. We are frightened we won't have any friends and we are frightened of other people. We are frightened we are losers because our house is too small or our tv is too small or our penis is too small or our breasts are too small. We are frightened we are losers because our bottoms are too big or our stomachs are too big or our noses are too big. We are frightened we are losers because we have less money than other people. We are frightened we are losers because we wear the wrong clothes. We are frightened we are losers because our jobs are not prestigious enough. We are frightened we will get sick because we don't exercise and because we eat loser food. We are frightened our food is poisonous anyway. We are frightened we will be cheated or damaged by incompetent or evil doctors, plumbers and electricians. We are frightened we will be humiliated because of our mistakes. We are ashamed of how we live and ashamed of our secret fears. We are frightened that our grip on a 'normal' life is fragile, and that we could all too easily find ourselves amongst the outcasts of losers and weirdos living in cardboard boxes. We are frightened that our mad fearful lives have fucked the environment so much we are all doomed.
If we accept that our way of life is dominated by fear, perhaps our ELECTED LEADERS should be trying to come up with solutions and alternatives? If they don't, who will? Business leaders? The royal family? Brad and Angelina?
One of the first things that needs to be done is to recognise that our resources are being squandered through excessive fear-driven competition. [insert now need two income spiel; mountains of toxic garbage dumped in third world, container ships stuffed with plasma tvs, bbqs, coffee machines, etc etc. Not just a matter of families foolishly spending dollars on these things (as per affluenza), also the RESOURCES consumed in the production, transport, retail, and disposal of all this shit. What are the resources required to run just one shopping mall in canberra? (taking into account not just the actual people and facilites of the mall itself, but the people and resources going into the stupid fucking products?) if those resources were instead deployed to hosptial and school etc? ie, if we ditched the new mall in civic, could we have a nice, safe, pleasant, efficient, relaxed hospital instead???? And still have four or five other identical malls anyway?????? Ie, fear-driven competition drives us to greedily and wastefully consume resources, creating shortages in essential areas, which make us more fearful. Another viscious circle of sorts]
So, given that in reality we appear to actually have plenty of resources, we need to firstly set out the priorities that we need to live in a less fearful way, that can provide us with a SUSTAINABLE MATERIAL BASE FOR A LESS FEARFUL LIFE:
-security of housing and income for everyone
-magnificent green and safe public and private transport
-green energy
-time
-lovely clean natural environment for everyone to enjoy and eat and drink and wear
-proper health care and education
We have the RESOURCES (human, natural and technical) to make these things possible, we just need to adjust our economic system so that it delivers them as a sustainable material baseline for our society. Wouldn't it be reassuring to know that you were guaranteed, as a legal right, 20 hours a week of reasonably paid (and usefully productive) work and some kind of reasonable, dignified housing. That would certainly reduce a lot of fear. (note: incentive to work more, invent shit, have statues erected in your honour etc still there if you want more than the humble baseline)
Adjusting our economic system to deliver this should be a priority for government. First step:
-how many hours of work do we have available to us in australia (on basis of 20 hours per week from adults, plus x number of hours from kids and ablebodied oldies, something like 300 million hours a week)?
-How many hours needed to deliver and maintain the environment, food, clothing, transport, housing and educational and medical services required for Sustainable Base?
Work that out, then the rest of the hours can be freely used for luxuries, shopping, international trade, space exploration, etc.
That should deal with a lot of our material fears.
ALSO need to look at measures to deal with excessive phsycholgical and social fears, sexual health, alienation, etc. We have plenty of material on that already noted down. May need to revisit advertising and marketing though. It seems like a teenage or naïve thing to criticise advertising, but perhaps it really is a massive brainwashing force. Not to mention a waste of human resources and creativity. How many people actually like advertising? What does it contribute to our way of life? If there was a vote to eliminate it, how many would say YES?
User Reviews
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2008-05-14 13:48:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Most of the worlds problems can be solved in 1 easy step: Elect me, TTOM as Supreme World Leader and I promise to do the following to ease our woes.
1: Murder 2/3s of the worlds population. All the really useless shits who add nothing to society and make all our lives worse EG Michael Bay.
2. Enslave 50% of the remaining half to do all the shit jobs no one wants to do.
3. Clone Jessica Biel and install one in every home.
4. Force George Lucas to make some DECENT new Star Wars movies.
5. Destroy all copies of The Matrix: Revolutions and Revelations and make everyone pretend like they never happened.
6. All foods to be smothered in BBQ sauce.
7. Carousel...CAROUSEL!
TTOM for Supreme World Leader.
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2008-05-14 11:15:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I would enjoy living in your world very much
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2008-05-14 11:13:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
We are frightened that our grip on a 'normal' life is fragile, and that we could all too easily find ourselves amongst the outcasts of losers and weirdos living in cardboard boxes
Submitted by DrogoRoch (user info) at 2008-05-14 11:11:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
If we accept that our way of life is dominated by fear, perhaps our ELECTED LEADERS should be trying to come up with solutions and alternatives?
--
They are the ones perpetuating it. The media is the biggest offender here, yes freedom of the press and everything is wonderful and great, aparently, but they seem to accept no blame when it comes to making a mountain out of a mole hill and making people paranoid about things that really are no where near as bad as they make out.
Also wasnt there some Michael Crichton book about about the State of Fear? That explains it easier, as it has explosions and a will they wont they jump into bed side plot to keep people entertained.
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2008-05-14 10:35:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2008-05-14 09:31:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
There is no fear in love; for perfect love casteth out fear.
0-------------------0
Depends if she's got parkinsons and whether or not she's giving you a blowjob.
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2008-05-14 09:31:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
There is no fear in love; for perfect love casteth out fear.
Submitted by shandythedog (user info) at 2008-05-14 06:46:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
most people look like they're full of fear to me, most of the time
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2008-05-14 05:24:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The world is simply terrifying. So terrifying that I, for one, can't deal with it.
It's been a theme running since the '60s, with all them hippies 'dropping out'. Perhaps the quite insane levels of fear have to do with the threat of imminent nuclear annihalation but I think it has more to do with population density. Maybe that is why Americans and Australians are less uptight than British and Japanese folks.
Maybe I'm misreading the situation though, people don't seem to be responding to this post by saying that they're scared. Perhaps it's just a few of us who can't deal with it all.
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2008-05-14 04:18:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
did you write this? You don't normally capitalise.
Submitted by Registered_S_O (user info) at 2008-05-14 02:14:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have nothing to contribute except contributions themselves.
Submitted by shandythedog (user info) at 2008-05-14 01:44:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
also, my brave-hearted little frog, i have never seen more than five minutes of a michael moore film, but if he is suggesting that public policy should be focussed specifically on addresing the social and economic conditions that foster widespread and unnecessary fear, i would be interested to see his work
as for the naiivity acknowldegement - thankyou.
Submitted by shandythedog (user info) at 2008-05-14 01:19:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
excellente point caulincunt, i am actually advocating a return to caveman days
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2008-05-13 23:40:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
i thought the "we are frightened so we spend more" was covered by michael moore in his bad documentaries.
we're afraid to lose our mostly useless assetts. that's pretty minor compared to wondering if Oktar the neighboring caveman and his gang will take over your comfy cave and rape your wife.
and i don't see why our leaders would change anything if they themselves are elected by a fearful people.
this read like it was written by a idealist teenager.
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2008-05-13 21:45:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Boy Scout Motto: Be Prepared.
"The only thing we have to fear is, fear itself." - Franklin Delanore Roosevelt, US President
Awareness, preparedness, and action will always win out over fear in the end. It's true for humanity, for countries, for communities, and for every individual.
Submitted by PepsiCoke (user info) at 2008-05-13 21:21:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The biggest fear is death and the fear that I've wasted my life. The other fears all branch from that.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2008-05-13 21:05:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
STD FTW!!!
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2008-05-13 21:05:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i enjoy shandy posts that expand a little beyond the norm.
i enjoy the regularly scheduled shandy programming as well. it's just that the change of pace is nice.
if you're ever in my country, shandy, i will gladly feed you beers.
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2008-05-13 20:52:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
oops
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2008-05-13 20:52:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Holy Shit, an ACTUAL STD post?
Hey, are you online?
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2008-05-13 20:49:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Are you frightened?
--------------------------
I saw this, and I stopped reading, because I already know the answer.
Yes.
I'm frightened of everything that's happening in the world right now, and everything around me. I'm frightened by the news, and the sad stories, and the tight belts, and the low wages, and high prices, and pessimistic futures, and fear itself indeed also.
Everyone is in some way or another, and to some extent, with few exceptions, but we all just deal the best we can.
Submitted by Linus (user info) at 2008-05-13 20:27:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fear of the dark?
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2008-05-13 20:15:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
WTFINRAT!!
Submitted by shandythedog (user info) at 2008-05-13 19:44:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
fear of night creatures is wise and acceptable
Submitted by Ballare (user info) at 2008-05-13 19:43:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Night creatures call
And the dead start to walk in their masquerade
There's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time
(They're open wide)
This is the end of your life
They're out to get you
There's demons closing in on every side
They will possess you
Unless you change that number on your dial
Now is the time
For you and I to cuddle close together, yeah
All through the night
I'll save you from the terror on the screen
I'll make you see
That this is thriller
Thriller night
'Cause I can thrill you more
Than any goule would ever dare try
(Thriller)
(Thriller night)
So let me hold you tight
And share a
(killer, diller, chiller)
(Thriller here tonight)
Submitted by shandythedog (user info) at 2008-05-13 19:42:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
i forgot to mention fear of child molestation!!
GOOD POINT, THAT IS A HUGE FEAR WWITH MAKSKSIVIVE IMPLICATIONS
Submitted by shandythedog (user info) at 2008-05-13 19:41:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
i forgot to mention fear of singing and dancing
Submitted by Director (user info) at 2008-05-13 19:36:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I got about a third of a way through this and realized you weren't asking about child molestation, at which point it turned into:
blah blah blah fear blah blah blah fear blah blah fear blah blah blah fear blah blah blah fear.
I hate to pigeonhole you man, but you really need to stick with child molestation.
Submitted by Linus (user info) at 2008-05-13 19:35:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I can't read for a damn right now, but I'm feelin' fantastic.