Opinion Editorial

BUMP IN THE NIGHT

 By James Strauss

Love is not the strongest motivational emotion in the universe. Neither are feelings of sexual attraction, and it’s not hunger either. It’s fear. Cold, naked, overwhelming fear. It’s that feeling in the middle of the day, or night, that the end is near, and it’s not going to be a good one. It’s the feeling that total rejection by loved ones and tribe will somehow take place, and there is no recourse to prevent it. It’s the feeling that life is not worth continuing, or that a comforting death might actually be better than continuing to face a blizzard of seemingly unconquerable obstacles. The study of sociology tells us ‘fight or flight’ are the normal human responses to fear. The emotion of fear, so intense and overpowering, was once the province of observational result. Humans saw or heard something, and then, after nearly instant analysis and split-second decision-making, either ran away, or faced into the terror and fought. Nothing has changed except for advances in communications broadcast power. These advances, although doing nothing to change the physiology of how the human species reacts, have changed the psychology of our social order, to the point where fear is almost the only emotion employed by the powerful to control, and direct, everyone else in every society on earth.

While headlines and television news shows broadcast never ending versions of violent incidents, the back story communications from these same organizations spewing fear, are all about how mankind et al have become terrorized and frightened. There are very few sources, within the modern labyrinth complex of advanced communications, that attempt to caution or contextualize intensely fearful violence, by reminding their audience that these events occur only rarely, and in varied and different corners of all cultures. Not long ago in California, fourteen people were killed in a work-related attack. From the mass media response to this event, one would think the twin towers in New York had been re-erected, and dramatically struck by passenger liners all over again. The reaction of cultural leaders to the disproportionate media attention has also been so violent itself, as to appear bizarre to any objective observer. Since the perpetrators of the workplace violence were Muslims, it has been suggested that all Muslims should be banned from the U.S, or marked like the Jews were during WWII. To have this opinion put forth by the leading (by far) republican contender for President in next year’s election is astounding! Particularly as the election is only eleven months away.

When FDR spoke his fateful empty words: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”, he was speaking to a public not yet sensitized to mass media control. The message of today (in our much more developed communication complex) is the reverse of what FDR spoke about. Today, all cultures are being presented with only “fear” to “fear”. The very real and potentially fatal threat of global warming receives almost no coverage. In fact, the phrase “global warming” has been modified to “climate change” in order to minimize the reality that something might be going terribly wrong with the way humans are treating the planet. Also, there is almost nothing printed or reported about a financial shift that should create fear in all citizens, of all developed countries, and that’s the continuing progressive slide of money away from the masses, into the hands of a very few elite individuals. All of human history is littered with successful cultures that died because revolution overtook them, while they were attempting to rectify monetary unfairness. Fourteen people dying in San Bernardino, California is a big deal to the community there, and the families that lost loved ones. It is not, and should not, be presented as a big deal to the world, nor should it be used by mass media to hype up fear to control our entire population.

One sickening reaction to this latest hackle-raising violence, following a dissimilar, but equally terror producing event in Paris, is a plan for current U.S. leadership to place more U.S. military bases in foreign countries. Members of the military industrial complex are profiting from helping media build fear in the public mind, and this kind of proposed action demonstrates that. Building more military bases abroad would do nothing to combat terrorism, nothing more than drone strikes have done, nothing more than “boots on the ground” in Iraq and Afghanistan have done. Clear analysis of recent military history illustrates this to even the simplest minds. What military expansion would do is continue to reinforce the image, and identity, of the United States as an empire; a dark empire, as was so well illustrated by George Lucas in Star Wars. America does not know what it wants. But is becoming the present day manifestation of the “dark force” really what it wants? Does America understand what is going in? The voices of those who profit from death and torture are screaming for more military spending, when the U.S. military is already more powerful than all other military forces on earth combined. The U.S. has the only nuclear armed submarines and aircraft carriers on constant patrol all over the world. The U.S. has over two hundred military bases abroad. How much more “control” is needed to ensure that everyone living outside the borders of one nation live in fear of that nation, while everyone inside that nation fears everyone living outside it’s borders? It is your America. If you, as an America citizen, want to live in fear that the least little bump you hear might be a terrorist entering your window on Christmas Eve, then you have the right to do just that. If you put yourself in that situation because you blindly and silently trust the voices and images of modern mass media, then “deserving” is about the only word that should apply to your future. Today’s world is becoming more nationalistic and insular all the time. Borders are being closed to visitors; passes and visas are becoming hopelessly expensive; and visitors are being automatically classified as suspect (all around the world). This slow closure of all borders is being done deliberately, by a minority of humans, in order to keep “people” from getting together and learning about real life, a life that is not otherwise presented to them by the well controlled mass media. Social media is being censored, and the Internet is being studied to limit the kind of content you might read.

Do you want to be terrified? You have that right. Do you want to be blindly led? You also have that right. Do you want to huddle under your covers, perspiring in fear of what might be hiding at the bottom of your closet? You have that right, too. This Christmas season will feature many age old stories about selfishness and mean-spirited fear. Pay attention to the stories that past literary masters have created for you about your very own future, and how you can influence that future. The stories portrayed by Scrooge and It’s a Wonderful Life are not fictional, except in the way they are presented. They are as real as you want them to be. The world would not be a better place without you in it. Get up, go out, get together with your fellow spirits this Christmas.
It really is all about you and the way you want it to be.
Merry Christmas.   ~James Strauss