BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID!
There. With this paragraph I’ve synthesized most of the “real world” news I’ve read, heard or seen during the past year. Why waste your time with a news outlet? Just get a big poster of whatever used to scare the bejeezus out of you when you were a kid and stare at that for 2 seconds every morning, in lieu of the morning paper. Cut off the middleman.
Don’t misunderstand me; there’s nothing wrong with fear. Fear is a healthy sentiment, and it proved most useful in keeping our ancestors alive during their times of strife. You might even say that fear was bestowed upon us by eons of natural selection. For while the fearful hunter yelled in terror and headed for the hills upon hearing a soft whooshing sound through the tall grass, the fearless stayed behind and met the sabretooth head-on… and not much was heard of him since.
Fear itself has little to do with reason. And it is reasoning you must, when faced with what passes for news these days. Airplane crash! Credit crisis! Earthquake! War! Famine! Global warming! More war! Peak oil! Nuclear weapons! And then you munch another donut, or spoonful of cereal, or you take another sip of tall decaf skinny latte, and you think to yourself: dude, the world is going to end! Act! Act now! Don’t stop to think, for all will be lost!
Yes, you actually do start thinking in exclamation marks. And there are very few things more annoying than otherwise sane and reasonable people buying into this mass hysteria. And letting themselves be bullied and pushed around like sheep, giving up hard-earned rights, accepting preposterous wars and frightful measures, all in the name of deliverance. Deliverance for fear.
For what does a happy sheep do? It, well, eats, but not only; it might run, jump around the place, socialize with other sheep – even with ewes of different color, oh my! – maybe get into meaningful discussions with the dog and the donkey over whether The Shepherd exists, and should we all believe in him unquestioningly. Compare this with the fearful sheep, going with the herd, not stopping to think or to question – and over the cliff they all go, to salvaaaatiiooooooooooo [splat].
Fear built armies. Fear elected presidents. Fear bought insurance. Fear kicked you out of the subway when those dodgy-looking kids got on. Afraid of being poor. Afraid of being lonely. Afraid of being, pure and simple, afraid of even thinking about life and the meaning of it all, for fear of finding out it was all in vain. A whole bloody world just quaking in its boots, and never stopping to think and ask: what are we so afraid of?
Well, hello world. It’s the 21st century. The 6000 year old human civilization has conquered the Earth. Don’t you think it’s about time we start conquering our fear?