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Fear

We have nothing to fear but fear itself? As an escape and an excuse, fear deters most people from discovering or exploring or examining the larger systems that control their lives. A fall back position when the odds look iffy? Fear cubed, fears quintupled comprise the sad emotional sphere of most humans. A defense mechanism works, to fear a carnivore. Avoid sharks and live. Bear coming this way, go, very fast, that way. Fear as a good thing unfortunately transfers to a way of existing, a perpetual way of seeing the world.

A scholar of political science or writer of books on political systems would be and are better prepared to discuss the topic of fear as a political took of control, even a published and renowned historian would serve. I am not any of those thing. I’m a citizen with the weapon called ability to write out what I’m thinking over and have been thinking over my life entire. This is my opinion and it’s faulty in a lot of places, has gaping holes in the logic, and truth is not a part of my presentation because I don’t see the whole picture and never will. But fear is useful, necessary, and rampantly deployed as a mean to control the whole world of earth born. (Greed and profit motive go hand in hand with fear, but that’s a whole different can of beans).

Men, women, and children' children, women. and men; women, children, and men. Automatically, I used the first ordering based on the Biible’s and most religious texts written, mostly written by men, to creata a heiarchy to be followed everywhere. Men first. It is inbred and fed to us with mother’s milk, and if bottle fed, in the formula. Reinforced every hour, every minute, every breath. Women are second. Children just catch hell being on the bottom of the list. Fear is for women and children, it is their due because men must see to it that they are (as the strongest and first) afraid of men. Boys often come before women on the list, because they are men in training. I come from a matriarchial line, the men did not survive from war or if they survived they were alcoholics, having been broken by war, or life, or poverty. So I see the world through a differnt lens, but fear happens to all denominations of homo sapiens, all sizes, sexes, and ages. Old people (retirees and pensioners are another topic for an entire range of other fears in addition to the ones discussed here).

There can be no discussion of fear without an examination of power. I once talked to a security guard who said police, state police, federal agents all pale beneath the weaponry wielded by the military when talking about the most powerful and the most fearsome. I had to concur and did heartily. What is an armored vehicle next to a missle or a nukwas the argument and a darn good on. True, the President has to authorize nuclear strikes as Com In Chief, but the military personnel, the Admiralty, the High Command of the armed services, recommend that kind of attack and they consult before the President decides. The Congress does not approve nuclear strikes, they approve war (unless under presidential order or police action aka Korea). Escalation is based on funding by Congress, therefore there are check and balance, not applicable if the weaponry such as missiles on a submarine are already paid for and ready to launch with proper authorization. I think that pretty much sums up chain of command, but ultimately it comes down to the man (or woman now) with their finger on the trigger (or button or lever or computer keys) that releases the nuck(s). That process can break down at any point and be curtailed. Def Con 4 we learn from movies and books is not a good place to be. Im the flicks the hero or heroine always refuses to launch and detonate. So, fear not, we are safe because the movies said so.

Fear of nuclear attack and retaliation quantity and intensity is the deterrent, yet the threat is always there, hence the definition of power. Not the biggest gun, the most and best gun with the superior delivery system that has accuracy and speed. Drone delivered nukes, now that is a fearsome concept. Star Wars and surveillance by sats without the space based weaponry is a reality. With the eyes able to put a missile on top of one man’s head as the target, the military and governments of the globe have sidestepped the need to put weapons on space launchers. It is the same concept. First, fast, accurate. By keeping the discussion of “preparedness” out of the news media, we feel safe artificially. Fear is the deterrent. Whether a man or woman or child stiking any of the above fear deters retaliation and it is believed encourages avid and speedy compliance to authority, command,  or the winner (or most prepared with the ability for total annihilation). A child with a gun knows he has power because ultimately he can end the conflict totally. A slave master with a sword, a gun, and a whip, chain, and control of the laws ensures the same. Fear becomes defined as the tool for guaranteeing the chain of command and dominance.

In world politics dominance is controlled by allocation and procurement of resources. The oil wars is what history will call Afghanistan and Iraq. ISIS knew that control of the resources was where the power lay and why more troops (as consultants) were sent or retained in Iraq. We hear very little about Afghanistan and who is still there. We are (or once was) the greatest nation with the biggest fasted most accurate weaponry, therefore lesser prepared nations should fear us. When the oppressed, the bombed, the losers get tired of being oppressed, bombed and losing, strange tactics emerge when fear is removed from the equation. Suicide bombers, teens with guns in schools against SWAT like entities, suicides, murder as homicide and all the other “cides” sublimate fear to become tragedy as well as unstoppable.

There was an episode of The West Wing – ambused insertion team chopper and a dozen or more men dead because of a land to air missile (LAM) and misinformation about where the American soldier hostages were being detained. The actor (I love Martin Sheen in a rage) president said the op had the sophistication of “Hey you, your shoelace is untied.” The bigger they are, the easier they are to dupe, infiltrate, and dominate. Faster thinking over powerful fast weaponry – strategy, maneuver, destroy, and exit before, before the more sophisticated weaponry can be utilized. I was surprised that one got past the sensors. After all, there are terrorists watching or would be terrorists in training watching.

I love Madam Secretary, but it posits current world relationship problems and single mind of a woman solution over that of her boss, the President, and often ambassadors, the military, and the UN. This is fear mongering and power posturing as conditioning of the populations who pay for the incredibly effective government  Secretary of State. I think Hilary Clinton looks at that show and finds it the best comedy or sit-com on the airwaves. She understands power and manipulation of thinking is the point, as are movies in which we actually send in one guy to retrieve Viet Nam War vets in captivity living under torure and horrendous conditions in the jungle. We lost the war, but the “people” or the “voters” had to have a mass media “win”. To feel safe. To not fear that someone out there out-smarted us. The cynical or pacifistic claim conspiracy of various kinds of industrial complexes, the radical or liberal make the military the bad guys who want to use the weapons they have developed and want to keep “readiness” up to snuff in case of a “wider conflict”.

As resources shrink (oil, fresh water, arable land, clean air) large masses of humans will have no choice but to demand that their governments act on their behalf. The “They won’t ask, they’ll just want us to get it for them!" Paraphrase from THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR or Robert Redford and the U.S. population gets schooled in real uses of power and why it exists. Fear death by nuke, by hordes out of control, by rioters, cults, and military movements with a thinking and capable leadership and numbers. The attacks on black men and boys is based on a similar fear. You can not rise to take over anything especially resources or power command structures. Reference ­The Spook Who Sat By The Door & Enemies. If I was white, those books would have scared the shit out of me. I'm black and those books scared the shit out of me. Just considering the possibility of blacks in power is cause for retaliation. If you condone institutional violence against a people, a country, a religion, then fear of payback based on need to survive is the chicken roosting. Malcolm said it and died for challenging two things. Control of back minds over the controlled propaganda of the Media (can not upset the status quo ex-pimp turned Muslim spokesman) and correcting misconceptions like there are white Muslims. Oh horrors that a white man is not Christian or Jewish. That means his Caucasian wife and is Caucasian kids are Muslims too, more horrors. Malcolm had to go. King was about to go to the mountain top of where the real power lies, by any means necessary (black militant calls from The Panthers). I remember the speech Malcolm X gave when he said, “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us!” it’s rhetoric, but it sticks and sinks in and grows other ideas contrary to the “message”  law and order.

The discourse contines and Aframs are on the rise, but here come the Mexicanos, the Central American children, the Cubanos, Puerto Rican born, and what are dastardly referd to a whole (wrongfully) as Hispanics - to keep the designation of the "type" of 21st Century brown enemy for the hour clear and easily dentified. That is another topic under the heading fear and fear tactics. The border control suggestions range from the too expensive to execute to the racist most gross violation of human beings and the human spirit. Few other topic make me embarrassed for my country as much as the discussion of the ejection of people from small nations in our hemisphere designating them criminal entities. Not a popular opinion, just a reality. We don't want them here is the catch phrase, the sound bite. Another is: They will take American jobs which is a mis-nomer because they are Americans too.Their scholars will have to address those issues. If we had exonomic prosperity, it probably would not be such a hot topic. Precedents are involved and the art of generating fear in those still wanting to come here has to be maintained and enforced as policy. See "The Day After Tommorrow" for example of U.S. wanting ironically to go south of the border in large numbers - deal was made to forgive South America's debt for lowering the bornders to U.S. citizens. Hmmmmm. Who said hollywood does not have a sense of humor. No one? No one.

I would not want to live in a country without a strong military or police. There is a lot of property here, wealth most of us do not image inside  much smaller economic realities and potentials. There are humans who enjoy the best and finest and most expensive without a thought for their security – because they control the military via money for weapon’s systems and training of other expendable humans who will protect them. When billionaires die, it’s a big media event. When a poor child, woman, or man dies, hey no money no mourning except by immediate friends and family if they have any left who still loved them. If the French and Russian Revolutions teach one lesson, it is that kinds and queens, princes and princesses are sacs of water that when punctured, the water comes out (I love that concept from Game of Thrones).

Fear is necessarily instilled in humans to keep them from rebellion, challenging the wisdom of the wealthiest in power decision positions, and from putting the wealthy who take money from large aggregates in prison (see 2007 reports and TOO BIG TO FAIL). The injustice was infuriating and a movement to remove those kinds of entitlements from the richest of the world is in full swing. (This discussion of Fear is my joining the bandwagon). Congress, both Houses, The Executive, and the Courts are in league with the money that is now constitutionally defined as “choice, voice, and as legal as a corporation defined as “a person”. Oh please. Insult my intelligence again. I love it. I like feeling stupid by people in power over my life, livelihood, and security.

The statistics are available and everywhere for those who wish to look and analyze and parse. In the face of such facts, such incredible numbers and deduction, still there is fear to act to end the discrepancies that destroy justice, freedom, and peace. In such discussions there is not possibility for “truth” to be aired. Manipulation is necessary to maintain peace. Okay. Propaganda, mental control techniques. and political machine efficacies and mandate are necessary to ensure polemics and democratic discourse. But when the pendulum swings against the majority of the U.S. population, fear is not the response for the financially abused, one time home owning down trodden, the disenfranchised (show ID to vote and Gerrymandering) whipped, and academically scorned, mobility forgotten, student endebted, or the politically marginalized (the list is longer). Anger trumps fear and the power structures under attack create an enemy (usually brown or yellow or black or non-Christian or non-Jewish) to change the topic of national discussion in the media.

Someone pointed out to me once about twenty years ago that a lot of the source on stories in the newspapers is “government source” or “police sources”. Trust is a shady discussion from pale to ebony, but at what point was jane blow and john q public and child witness no longer a valid source for a story? Not when did it happen but why? Answer, control of the thoughts and ideation processes of large numbers of readers in search of a truth they can believe.

Fear is the stepchild of scary. When you are scared, reason suffers and struggling to survive, pay the rent, feed the kids, save for the latest technological gadget, the U.S. population(s) elect to be  tied in elsewhere. I love gadgets, not as much as gadgetophiles, but I write on one and post this opinion on fear on the internet. They are expensive and the economy has strong sectors, one of which is gadgets, one of which is weapons small to ridiculously mass destruction worthy, one of which is movies (no it takes 3-5 production companies to put out one movie). I’m  just sayin’. Really.

Then there is the freedom of speech vs. fear issue. I know a lady who says all the time: “I know I’m being monitored by the Big Brother, but I’m not doing anything, so I’m safe.” I imagine a lot of that kind of sentiment being uttered at the dinner table by the Polish and French Jews under Hitler. If you can not or will not imagine the impossible, then you are at risk of extinction. “Never again.” Every year a book or a movie or documentary on the Jewish dead and the Nazis. They mean that shit. Never again ever. They have nukes, Israel. We taught ‘em how to maintain them, fuel them, aim them, and will consult with them before or after they decide to use them. Hard liners in Russia are in ascension. They have diamonds and oil and no markets. They want the piece of the pie they were promised after Germany fell. They want the dominance to create fear in populations world-wide for control of resources to support their power rep. They won WWII and we claimed it was the bomb that won the war. It was the Russians feared by the Japanese who thought they would be forced to give Haikado and their elimination of their Emperor who was the equivalent to the Japanese people of Jesus Christ to Christian nations. They feared the loss of the head of their religion. Damn. The Bible predicts in no uncertain terms that one day claiming to be a believer in the triumvirate of the Christian godhead will be a death sentence. The devil will be the culprit or any nation that rises up and challenges the right to religious freedom.

The symbol and the principal is male, by the way. If the devil was a woman, no fear could be engendered in large numbers of earth born. Feminist would take issue with that supposition because women are more vicious, fearsome, more deadly intellectually, and mentally stronger than men psychologically. Just another power concept to strengthen the male as only sex as a leader possible. Come on Hillary. Run and win an show ‘em how power and fear should be executed. (Sorry, I’m a fan).

Too many minorities are filling the slots in ivy league universities, thus the backlash of Constitutionality of guaranteed slot for non-whites. Those institutions were grown and supported by wealthy contributors and donors and government appropriations to maintain male dominiance in all areas of U.S. life. Period. Until cities burned and women started reminiscing about building ships and planes in two world wars.  

Fear is now in the court of the power brokers of note, the billionaires are talking to their corporate lawyers to learn how to hide their wealth, protect their assets, and retain the ability to instill fear in those not them. When the U.S. Gov. went after assets off shore or in Swiss banks, I applauded. But wait, a fine was the wrap on the wrist. Unions are afraid of declining numbers. Congressmen are afraid of losing their fat war chests for the next election. A little negative sanction is virtually no sanction at all. If I owned aka ran say, Morgan-Stanley, or Chase or Wells Fargo or any of the other financial institutions designated too big to fail, and all it’s capital and I get fined oh say four hundred to seven hundred million – and I do not jail time, then that’s a win for the country. Blackmail is an ugly term, but if you control “all” of the money and goods and services, and means of production, and the resources (the oil and gas industry) then you virtually own the government. Hence the failure to limit contributions to political parties and candidates. Money is free speech afterall.

I’m just ranting. I know I am. Who am I to discuss fear and power and capital? My credentials state I write a pretty okay poem and my employment resume is sooooo outdated (no IT Information and Technology skills). I’m Just Sayin’.

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.Lady A

11-05-14

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