File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2003/lyotard.0302, message 30


Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 20:57:02 -0500
From: Don Socha <socha1de-AT-cmich.edu>
Subject: RE: the latest in propaganda...


Eric writes:  

>Don, 
>
>[snip]  Perhaps this is the first step - to recognize that 
fear is
>used as a weapon and to resist it as such. 

I want to think the problem is closer to the bone.  I mean, 
more than a weapon, fear goes a long way toward how I am 
fundamentally, and I feel it is my responsibility to work to 
do something about that.  But what?  I think I have to train 
my mind somehow, get it into a new habit... created 
somehow... by some kind of practice through which I am not 
afraid.  

Fundamentally, though, I need to understand what fear is.  
Having lived through trauma creates fear, and trauma seems to 
be something that few human beings have not experienced on 
some level.  

I want to understand how it affects me in different 
localities.  I get the hebeegeebees at stripmalls, for 
example, or when I'm feeling impatient.  It manifests itself 
as a kind of impatience verging on panic.  And certain 
people, like Dick Cheney can trigger it in me, or car 
salesmen, or apathetic, self-destructive post adolescents 
breaking the speed limit....     

Anyway, fear affects the way I am.  And to recognize that, I 
think is my first step, not toward realizing that "another 
world is possible," but something more immediate? 

Don   
 
>
>I admit I have been surprised to discover how many others 
here in
>America share political views similar to mine about the war 
and the
>economy.  There is also a linkage here with others around 
the world.
>While I don't want to minimize the dangers, I also want to 
point out
>that this is not the time for us to despair.  
>
>Once Margaret Thatcher said: "There is no alternative."
>
>More recently, it has been said by the Zapatistas: "Another 
world is
>possible."
>
>Now we must decide what choice we will make. What world will 
you choose?
>
>eric 
>
>
>

   

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