1) Nothing is in control: The Universe is a collection of energy manifestations and events occur randomly.

Assessment: For subscribers to this hypothesis, the extent of justifiable (rather than imagined or magnified) fear becomes a statistical function of the probability of the feared event occurring. Most fears are never realized due to the low probability of occurring. If one finds oneself in a condition of high probability that feared events will become manifest then be cautious at least and/or avoid such conditions if possible. This is the way fear may be managed in an uncaring, accidental universe.

2) Some God is in control: There is no free will and fatalism rules.

Assessment: The only thing to be feared is pissing off the God. The proscriptions of things that piss off God are the basis of Theistic religions. If you follow the religious canon to the best of your ability then you have nothing to fear as God will take care of you. BTW If God is in control then puppet that is you can’t behave contrary to his pleasure anyway so fear is totally irrational. Deal with it.

3) Each of us is in control: By us I mean all entities from the smallest unit of consciousness to the largest gestalt.

Assessment: This is the only way to have a totally fair and balanced (Fox News – fear monger extraordinaire) Universe. That is we are totally responsible for all that occurs in our experience. This is the way I prefer to believe the universe operates sans luck or victims – whether it does or not. This way we can equally take credit or blame for all situations that manifest in our reality and the only legitimate fear is fear of ourselves (We have met the enemy and he is us – Walt Kelly.) In this scenario fear is obviated by trust in oneself.

4) Some combination of the above is in control: A catchall for agnostics.

Assessment: Calculate the risks and keep your head down – and if you believe in God, pray you don’t piss him off.

Peace to ALL – NO FEAR

Jazzman

What about black, hispanic,and asian americans are they consumed or are there opinions irrelevent.

” Bus boys, dishwashers, and cooks dont worry about these things because it would be hard for their standard of living to get any lower”.
So because one is not wealthy you dont think that they care if they live or die.
Wealth may be very important to you but to many it is not the only thing that makes for happiness.

I guess you have never spent much time outside the US. If you would like I can list for you a few places where I would bet none of these cooks, busboys, and dishwashers would like to try and live.by the way my friend is a cook and he makes quite a nice living. He also eats better than most.

My advice is dont be so concerned with your materials and you wont be so fearful. You put way to much emphassis on eguating wealth and materialism with happiness.

Driving home I had a revelation. The middle and upper class whites in our country are consumed by this War on Terror because it could ultimately affect their standard of living – the highest in the world. The dishwashers and busboys and cooks do not spend time worrying about terrorism because no matter how events transpire it would be hard for their standard of living to get any worse.

The more I think about it the more I realize this is a war of avarice and our desperation to hold onto our materials is shameful.

With that said, Chris is convinced we are an empire in decline, but I push back, maybe it’s false hope or my own desperation, but I believe we have passed the apex of fear. The House will go to the Democrats and the accountability of oversight hearings will snap us back to reality. In the fullness of time, America’s flowing sails of diversity will withstand the storm, the ship will be righted and onward we will travel in our pursuit of happiness.

Well, in shorter bursts. But I’d dance even in a wheelchair.

Have you ever seen a Van Gogh up close?

Chapter 4: Fear and Fearlessness

“In order to experience fearlessnes it is necessary to experience fear…….fear has to be acknowledged…(we have to)…reconcile ourselves with fear.

” Because we possess such fear we also are potentially entitled to experience fearlessness. True fearlessness is not the reduction of fear, but going beyond fear.”

” In the Shambhala tradition, discovering fearlessness comes from working with the softness of the human heart”.

Being a gentle and decent person leads to fearlessness.

“the ideal of warriorship is that the warrior should be sad [the sadness of the human condition] and tender, and because of that the warrior can be very brave as well. Without that heartfelt sadness, bravery is very brittle, like a china cup”…….

I like the idea of surfacing.

It’s interesting how that psycho-babble worked last night. It was completely complementary to ( or parallel with) this thread. I wish it had connected more but as Chris said at the end there was not enough time.

Babu I also drift towards the verdict of unconcsious for Bush rather than conscious evil pushing this self-destructive course. That would indicate that one antidote would be to become more conscious, aware.

Last night there was an indication in the discussion ( I have to listen again) that one answer might be learning how to absorb and even embrace that which we fear or are told to fear and so transform it and maybe be tranformed and stronger by it. That idea is to look straight at the monster CALIPHATE and declare “bring it on”. (Lawrence Wright says something similar). Accommodation. If we are so strong and so right, why are we so afraid?

Thanks Peggy Sue for the book recommendation. I think I have something by him on my shelf.

PeggySue

your ’sit’ with Bush reminds me that for ten or twelve years I have been scanning the horizon watching for a cultural tsunammi which I intuit is on its way to hit our continental shelf and stand titanically upright in our collective shallows with the force of something so indifferently destructive as to defy reason.

To me Bush is an (unconscious) semaphore of this force. As is bin Laden.
Stalin, Hitler, they were not unconscious.

I fear this is something that reasserts itself indicriminately in the human genome, every so-many births. Samsara on steroids. Mutating?

I hope you will let me know what you think of that book.

Potter, yes I am thin. Although my moms awesome cooking packed on a couple of extra pounds today. I’m not sure what you look like but I have the feeling I would know you if I saw you, that wierd.

btw, my mom and stepdad were talking about how they wanted to get a place in the woods of Maine to get away from all the doom. They watch Fox and listen to Rush everyday and it has had a huge effect on them. Fear fear fear. Then on the way home I listen to the Meet the Press podcast and our Vice President made me want to drive into oncoming traffic. How much did he get beat up in High School?

“nother: I love the imagery of being lost in dance. Dance is something that I definitely do for my own enjoyment. I get lost in my own world and I find it euphoric. I have been this way since I was a child.�

“Enough of this thinking stuff for the eve. I’m off to spin around the room and imitate my daughter’s “interpretive dance� technique. May I reunite with my aboriginal self…�

Please Allison, tell me you will still be able to dance.

Nother- I imagined you perfectly so far. I think you are rather thin right?

Chris, Mary- loved the psycho-babble! Thanks expecially for Robert Jay Lifton. He packs a lot of wisdom and insight. Sorry lagoa!

hey, the show right now (er, 5 minutes ago) has entered the realm of the practical– a discussion of whether airline security enhances the state of fear by making us comply.

I dissent (of course, I’m a communitarian/greater good/goodie-two-shoes person). If the airport measure reduce the risks, then we leave less to chance (assuming that our participation in security trulyhelps the airport security folks do their job better facing the real threats. Vigilance counters fear. Who wants ignorance?

Chris, if you’re taking volunteers to criticize Bush’s policies, I’ll be the first in line. But, please, spare me the politics as psycho-babble, at least until Sept. 12.

I’m going to go throw up now.

Well, I suppose I am a bit indestructible. ;-D Mortal, yes. But no one and nothing has managed to destroy the me of me, so far. I may fumber intermittently, but I’m very resilient and resourceful. Even now, I don’t feel destroyed. Maybe a bit more determined.