fear

right away, right up front i have to say that this is going to be one of those rambling things where i know i had a point to make at the start, somewhere in the middle i will realise that i have lost it and towards the end i will just meander to a stop. (in many ways like most of the conversations i find myself in....)

ok so why am i talking about fear?
a number of factors have sparked this.
firstly a member of the curry club II mentioned he had seen a programme on the tv about campaigning based on the fear factor. politicians now get us to vote based on what they can make scare us. (hey joel).
secondly another pal (wotcha nevile) wrote an email saying how, because of various circumstances he was feeling fearless.
thirdly there was the moment while watching "the grudge" with sarah michelle gellar (look i was tired ok, it spooked me, i was alone at home in the dark - ok enough already!)
fourthly i had read something about seneca, a stoic, who basically said prepare yourself for the worst and you won't be too upset. admittedly he used a lot more words, bigger and better ones and has been read by more people than i will ever be.... (find out a little about him here or here
and then today there was this from the bbc website
"In his New Year message, the prime minister said he understood people's confidence was undermined by the fear of crime and insecure national borders."
and this goes a long way to proving the first point.
while this commentary piece from the guardian points to the current fears we have about things that in many ways are beyond our control (which is where seneca comes in); such as the recent earthquake and tsunami that has potentially killed over 100,000 people with more to go because of the possibility of a large outbreak of disease.

and when you put all this together what do you have?
well to be honest i am not sure. each of us encounters a level of fear in our daily lives from the silly phobias that we might have of the dark, spiders or hunters. or it might be the fears of modern living: being mugged, robbed, being made redundant or forced to listen to an endless diet of urban music. or we might have the fear of not being in a relationship or it might be the fear of commitment.
in some way or another we deal with all of these fears - some more successfully than others.
which is why we are shocked and horrified when an event like the earthquake/tsunami. it is an event so beyond our ken that we have to find ways to make it manageable and personal (such as the death of some of the attenboroughs (who cares?) or the death of over 40 britons, or in the case of the survivors they will talk about how poor the rescue services were in dealing with the disaster, as if it is something that happens everyday).
we do this partly because we are being told endlessly by those around us in politics or in the media that there are all these things we have to fear (immigration, weapons of mass destruction, organised crime, boybands and the like). they do this because they want to tell us that although they do not have all the solutions they are best able to protect us from this potential harm they have mentioned.
they want us to be on our guard against something, anything. it's not quite orwell's 1984, but it is not the carefree days we used to enjoy. so the media and politicians will get us to agree to stricter immigration rules, harsher punishments for criminals and get us to agree to carry an ID card.
in the meantime when something like the earthquake and tsunami that has devastated indonesia, sri lanka , thailand etc occurs it catches all and sundry on the hop.
as it should - thats part of the beauty of an act of nature (or of god) is that it happens and you just can't stop it or really prepare for it. (that guy seneca he had the right idea!) so in some senses it is pointless to go on about what could or couldn't be done about it, or to make the argument that it only happens to the poor.
but by the same token those world leaders who are always talking about the threats to our ways of life (that would be you george and you tony) have to be prepared to actually respond when a crisis occurs. it's not good enough to say the right words and look soulful in front of the cameras. now is the time to gird your loins and do the right thing. whether it is making sure that there is money available, whether it is excusing those countries who are affected their debt, ensuring that the knowledge, materials and manpower is made available in order to clear up the situation that has occurred.
in order to do that though there is a chance, just a small chance that they have to let go some of the fears they have been feeding us, and instead offer out something that looks and smells a little like hope. so instead of offering us a shield from which we can hide behind to protect us from the unknown fears, they start offering us a vision of the world as a better place.

fear is easier though. you can change it to suit the times and the circumstances. you can always offer up fear and a ready made solution to it. we all know that as bad as this tragedy is in a few days time it will be replaced in the headlines by some wayward celebrity showing her draws to another overpaid footballer or singer. cynical but true.
meanwhile as vision and hope are a little harder to do politicians and the media will avoid like the plague.

this is the point i mentioned when i started this. i have sort of come to a stop.
i may just come back to this at a later date.