Fear Is The Mind Killer
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
-Frank Herbert, The Bene Gesserit Littainy Against Fear
We would all do well to learn and use this. It's not just science fiction, you know. We live in the land of fear, ruled and goaded by fear mongering media.
We need to snap out of it.
3 Comments:
I read "Dune" to Kathy many long years ago, and she fell in love with that chant... Wrote it out, memorized it...
I myself love the book (though I feel less for all the sequels), have read it I don't know how many times, and even liked the movie Lynch hated (and regret that there will *never* be a 'Director's Cut' (sigh)).
As for the fear, I personally blame mass media technology (not mass media itself, mind you). The press wants to sell news, just like everyone else wants to sell whatever it is they make/service/steal. So the kind of 'selective reporting' that's always gone on in varying degrees, highlighting the most 'sensational' stories, will continue. But it's the technology that allows us to passively consume all of the sensationalism, whether in an armchair in front of a spewing box or [supposedly] working at a computer with dynamically updating stories flashing across our corneas throughout the day. The days of avoiding 'the news of the day' by simply turning away from the newsseller on the sidewalk, or avoiding a glance at the headlines in the newspaper racks, are long since past. Now, if a lawyer in Piscattaway sues a six year old for spilling ice cream on his loafers, you're afraid to buy your kid an ice cream cone... Or if some nutjob in Modesto's caught with human feet in his freezer, you now check to see if yours are still attached everytime you wake up... Every isolated occurance, every freakish crime, is now immediately shared with the world through the wonder of modern media technology.
Want to escape the fear? Go into the backyard and search for lizards, take a camera out into the country looking for whatever crosses your viewfinder, mow the lawn, do the dishes, or just curl up with a good book... AWAY from the computer, and with the TV turned off (says the guy typing away on a computer with a TV on in the next room (LOL)).
Me...
I tried to read Dune as a kid at 14 - right around when the movie came out (1984). I'm a big Police fan & saw them on their Synchronicity Tour at Reunion Arena with UB40 opening up for them. Actually I saw them on November 14, 1983 and they played:
• Voices Inside My Head - Synchronicity I - Synchronicity II - Walking In Your Footsteps - Message In A Bottle - Walking On The Moon - O My God/ De Do Do Do De Da Da Da - Wrapped Around Your Finger - Tea In The Sahara - Hole In My Life - Spirits In The Material World - Invisible Sun - One World - King Of Pain - Don't Stand So Close To Me - Every Breath You Take - Murder By Numbers - Roxanne ** The Yellow Rose Of Texas - Can't Stand Losing You - So Lonely
• Support act: UB40.
• Attendance: 12,000; sellout.
It was a phenomenal show aside from the fact that Sting had the flu & they played the songs really fast. Regardless, I followed Sting's cultural clues & was excited about him starring in a movie based on a Science Fiction classic. The movie weirded me out. The book was over my head. But I think now I might have to pull out the old copy & try to read it again. I really like the Littainy Against Fear. It beats our modern day "litany of boredom & frustration" anyhow.
Some interesting points being made.
Fear based journalism isn't old, but I agree it is more proliferant now. It's easier to sell the news if you have emotion, drama, and fear associated with the story, rather than a comprehensive review of the facts. A good journalist will do both and tie it together. With the glut of opinion based programming on radio, tv and via the net, the lines are blurred and opinion based quotes are taken out of context and passed off as fact. There is a rule in the study of strategic communication that states that "the perception is the reality". Meaning that if a message has gone out a number of times to saturate the public, it will indeed be "real" to the public regardless of it being substantiated by facts or not. To be fair, in this "information" age, the attention span of a person is much more shorter than it was in the past. It is more difficult now, I would think, for a journalist to provide context to stories. Editors and producers can look at profit based on readership and audience as a measuring stick for success. I think it's far easier if you shortcut to the flash than on the substance. How else would you explain the number of disgraced journalists in recent years who just "made up stories". How ironic it is that Herbert's science fiction is more truthful than the banter and screed that the media hammer us with on a daily basis.
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