Stream of consciousness, using your text as inspiration:
Fear increases cortisol production and release which has a knock-on effect on the brain's chemistry.
The more our brain fires its neurons in a certain path (just lifting a finger takes hundreds of thousands or even millions firing in the same path simultaneously), the more the probability of the firing following a similar path increases with each such event.
Fear and stress feed on eachother.
Stress inhibits cognition, hampers informed decision-making, and triggers our flight/fight-response, making us much more likely to jump anywhere when we should think first whether to jump at all.
Any condition experienced for prolonged periods, especially with others, becomes our normal state of being due to normality being perception-based, both psychologically and neurologically.
Fear lowers the threshold for actions taken against the cause or source of the fear, no matter how illogical or tenuous.
To do anything rather than suffer fear passively means we will clamour for someone to tell us what to do to get rid of the fear.
Codify the above as memetic messages which use the mind's/brain's associative function in conjunction with pattern recognition. Let them repeat over and over without trying to steer which ones are to be the dominant ones: let this sort itself out naturally, as it will refine the memes and nudge the target audience ever closer to acting, any event fitting the meme(s) serving as an opportunity for release.
Before you know it, you'll have otherwise fully normal people demanding you - the authority - stop being so lenient, so lackadaisical and so forgiving. They/we will not only grudgingly admit that sometimes unpleasant measures are needed; we will demand the yoke and the whip, as long as we also get to wear the jackboot. We will ourselves make, out of what should be a regrettable necessity dictated by external circumstances, a virtuous duty which only the true believers have the strength of character to carry out.
Which faith or -ism or culture/people/race/you now what I mean and era doesn't matter. The extent of the actions resulting from the above will only ever be curbed by greater force and a redefinition of cost/reward-perceptions.
And anything that can happen, will (have) happen(ed). Somewhere. Somewhen.
I loved the stream of consciousness summary from your perspective.
The good thing about fear is it's conquerable and predictable. As you point out, it is not this ambiguous thing. It's physiology and psychology. It's spiritual. We can train ourselves to overcome it progressively over the course of our lives.
I personally live in as little fear as possible. My emotional need of security is very low. I've come close to death more than once, stared it in the face, and if you don't fear death, you can work backwards from there and start living in faith and confidence in all the other areas of your life.
I used to teach political science, english as a second language and the ideas of history/history of ideas (the swedish term 'idéhistoria' carries both meanings of the later) and dabbled a bit with logic, rethoric, theories of communication, that kind of stuff - the fuzzier the better. Mainly students age 16-20, but I have also worked with younger teens.
I used to teach for a year or three, then work in a warehouse or doing forestry or something else real like that - I love the actual teaching and loathe the bureaucracy and enforced political dogma of the swedish school system, but "real jobs" doesn't rub my noggin' the right way leading to me getting bred after a while and needing the challenge of trying to get teenagers to understand the difference between talking about a topic and endorsing the ideas of the topic being talked about.
Perfect. We make our own memes and graphic in house, so freely distribute. The graphics are simple designs, almost always black and white (we made the red one special for you) so people can print them into shirts, flyers and stickers, to get them out into the real world, and get around internet censorship.
That last graphic we made remembering march 16th would look extra special, posted up all around England for the commoners to see…
I'm glad my initial impression was "great, here comes a worldwide test of martial law over a cold/flu virus. Impossible to cure or provide chemical immunity against."
Made it easier to resist the nonsense as it rolled out a step at a time.
The hard part was watching otherwise intelligent people get sucked into the hysteria. The annoying part was incidentally learning too much about the illuminati-ish apex parasite methodology and power structure I'd avoided researching for decades so I wouldn't know too much for my own safety.
Haha, "the annoying part was incidentally learning too much about the illuminati-ish apex parasite methodology and power structure I'd avoided researching for decades so I wouldn't know too much for my own safety."
Yes, yes again yes to this. I've always been interested in the world power structure, but it always seemed just a little to...conspiratorial...even for me. But boy, what a crash course we just have gone through, and the conspiracy is more reality than I ever could have imagined. It's such a wicked web, so complex.
It's a funny thing how writers can be brilliant in one genre and flawed in another. Crichton to me has always been an example of the rare instances when the films are better than the novels they're based on.
I loved his variety of deep dives into subjects I'd probably have had zero interest about otherwise. I think Airframe is probably the best example. An airplane crashed, and the entire story was about who was culpable, the regulations around the industry, etc. Not necessarily the first thing I'd be interested in, but he made an incredible story around it.
One of the real joys in reading is having an author make you understand something you thought you had no interest in, and then you discover it to be an extraordinarily compelling subject.
James Rollins is another one. His Sigma series is incredible, and every book leaves me breathless and so much more informed about some of the most random stuff.
I may tell this anecdote too many times, but there was an episode in one of Lee Child's Jack Reacher books where Reacher is preparing for a challenge at a sniper range, and the description of the calibration of the rifle, the physical and mental discipline--I was mesmerized. First time in my life I had the feeling "I would like to be able to do that."
It's amazing how much death and destruction has come from Communism, and how we don't just seem to want to willingly forget it, but rush gleefully headlong back into this kind of world.
Brilliant piece, thank you for writing it. For me it was Fauci first saying that masks were utterly useless against a virus and then coming back and saying they were indispensable for protection. I knew, based on my 28 years of experiences in the medical device industry they were useless for viral protection so when he changed 180 degrees, I knew the fix was in and nothing coming out of D.C. henceforth was to be trusted. Not that it was prior to that but in regard to the "pandemic" my eyes were opened.
Books like The State of Fear, World War Z, 1984 and Brave New World were supposed to be warnings not playbooks. I used to think that people will believe what they want to believe but I don't anymore. The vast majority of people believe what they are told to believe. Fear is a teaching tool that is used by media corporations expertly around the world. Fear based behavior is generally devoid of critical thinking. Fear done effectively removes doubt and hope at the same time and kicks panic and despair into high gear. When people are afraid and without answers, they will listen to the loudest and/or most consistent, read repetitive, messaging. This is precisely why Trump had to go. He called out fake news for what it really is and that is the one thing that cannot be allowed. Policies come and go but once the media is fully exposed there is no going back. At least not to the old media scheme. Que the social media tyrants.
So, when Fear comes knocking on our hearts and mind, just say NO and then proceed to kick the living shit out of it so it doesn't come back.
That was a very good analysis, thank you very much. I think perhaps the points 6., Follow the money, is a very apt point and worth raising to the fearful to restore their minds to a proper balance.
I have said to a few people 'What would you not do to supposedly 'resist the virus'?' and said 'Would you jump over a cliff if the government said that then COVID would be over by Christmas?'.
It is so ridiculous that nobody in their right minds would say 'Yes'.
But I did say this to a nurse outside the hospital in Brighton, UK, where I was having immuno-therapy treatment. She looked away and replied 'You can't ask me that.'
It was only in the treatment room that I realised that she had been suicidal (I am aware she lived on her own). I wept for her. The next time I spoke to her she was better, but the whole thing made me extremely angry at those who perpetrated this fraud and those who willingly complied with the nonsense and failed to care for others.
Anyway, I did my own post on fear and reviewing what you said I would suggest laughter for dispelling fear.
Stream of consciousness, using your text as inspiration:
Fear increases cortisol production and release which has a knock-on effect on the brain's chemistry.
The more our brain fires its neurons in a certain path (just lifting a finger takes hundreds of thousands or even millions firing in the same path simultaneously), the more the probability of the firing following a similar path increases with each such event.
Fear and stress feed on eachother.
Stress inhibits cognition, hampers informed decision-making, and triggers our flight/fight-response, making us much more likely to jump anywhere when we should think first whether to jump at all.
Any condition experienced for prolonged periods, especially with others, becomes our normal state of being due to normality being perception-based, both psychologically and neurologically.
Fear lowers the threshold for actions taken against the cause or source of the fear, no matter how illogical or tenuous.
To do anything rather than suffer fear passively means we will clamour for someone to tell us what to do to get rid of the fear.
Codify the above as memetic messages which use the mind's/brain's associative function in conjunction with pattern recognition. Let them repeat over and over without trying to steer which ones are to be the dominant ones: let this sort itself out naturally, as it will refine the memes and nudge the target audience ever closer to acting, any event fitting the meme(s) serving as an opportunity for release.
Before you know it, you'll have otherwise fully normal people demanding you - the authority - stop being so lenient, so lackadaisical and so forgiving. They/we will not only grudgingly admit that sometimes unpleasant measures are needed; we will demand the yoke and the whip, as long as we also get to wear the jackboot. We will ourselves make, out of what should be a regrettable necessity dictated by external circumstances, a virtuous duty which only the true believers have the strength of character to carry out.
Which faith or -ism or culture/people/race/you now what I mean and era doesn't matter. The extent of the actions resulting from the above will only ever be curbed by greater force and a redefinition of cost/reward-perceptions.
And anything that can happen, will (have) happen(ed). Somewhere. Somewhen.
What an amazing comment! This is fantastic.
Thank you, good to know it has some value - also, nice for me to mitigate my withdrawal-symptoms from no longer teaching.
Edit: And: the better the Substack-post, the better the comments!
You were a teacher?
I loved the stream of consciousness summary from your perspective.
The good thing about fear is it's conquerable and predictable. As you point out, it is not this ambiguous thing. It's physiology and psychology. It's spiritual. We can train ourselves to overcome it progressively over the course of our lives.
I personally live in as little fear as possible. My emotional need of security is very low. I've come close to death more than once, stared it in the face, and if you don't fear death, you can work backwards from there and start living in faith and confidence in all the other areas of your life.
I used to teach political science, english as a second language and the ideas of history/history of ideas (the swedish term 'idéhistoria' carries both meanings of the later) and dabbled a bit with logic, rethoric, theories of communication, that kind of stuff - the fuzzier the better. Mainly students age 16-20, but I have also worked with younger teens.
I used to teach for a year or three, then work in a warehouse or doing forestry or something else real like that - I love the actual teaching and loathe the bureaucracy and enforced political dogma of the swedish school system, but "real jobs" doesn't rub my noggin' the right way leading to me getting bred after a while and needing the challenge of trying to get teenagers to understand the difference between talking about a topic and endorsing the ideas of the topic being talked about.
Hey did you ever get those memes? I posted them in your comment section but you have a large following so it may have been looked over.
March 16th you were looking to promote.
https://westcoastjohn1978.substack.com/p/remember-remember
Yes, and it's awesome. I love it. Thanks for reminding me and for doing that. Let's get that shit circulating around them interwebs.
Perfect. We make our own memes and graphic in house, so freely distribute. The graphics are simple designs, almost always black and white (we made the red one special for you) so people can print them into shirts, flyers and stickers, to get them out into the real world, and get around internet censorship.
That last graphic we made remembering march 16th would look extra special, posted up all around England for the commoners to see…
You're doing the Lord's work. Thanks for alerting me, I just subbed to your Stack.
I'm glad my initial impression was "great, here comes a worldwide test of martial law over a cold/flu virus. Impossible to cure or provide chemical immunity against."
Made it easier to resist the nonsense as it rolled out a step at a time.
The hard part was watching otherwise intelligent people get sucked into the hysteria. The annoying part was incidentally learning too much about the illuminati-ish apex parasite methodology and power structure I'd avoided researching for decades so I wouldn't know too much for my own safety.
Haha, "the annoying part was incidentally learning too much about the illuminati-ish apex parasite methodology and power structure I'd avoided researching for decades so I wouldn't know too much for my own safety."
Yes, yes again yes to this. I've always been interested in the world power structure, but it always seemed just a little to...conspiratorial...even for me. But boy, what a crash course we just have gone through, and the conspiracy is more reality than I ever could have imagined. It's such a wicked web, so complex.
Good post.
It's a funny thing how writers can be brilliant in one genre and flawed in another. Crichton to me has always been an example of the rare instances when the films are better than the novels they're based on.
But a prescient thinker, 100%.
I loved his variety of deep dives into subjects I'd probably have had zero interest about otherwise. I think Airframe is probably the best example. An airplane crashed, and the entire story was about who was culpable, the regulations around the industry, etc. Not necessarily the first thing I'd be interested in, but he made an incredible story around it.
Thank you.
One of the real joys in reading is having an author make you understand something you thought you had no interest in, and then you discover it to be an extraordinarily compelling subject.
YES!
James Rollins is another one. His Sigma series is incredible, and every book leaves me breathless and so much more informed about some of the most random stuff.
I may tell this anecdote too many times, but there was an episode in one of Lee Child's Jack Reacher books where Reacher is preparing for a challenge at a sniper range, and the description of the calibration of the rifle, the physical and mental discipline--I was mesmerized. First time in my life I had the feeling "I would like to be able to do that."
https://reason.com/volokh/2022/11/07/november-7-as-victims-of-communism-day-2022/
Thanks for posting this. It kind of ties in with Remembering, as I just recently wrote about.
https://bherr.substack.com/p/remember-remember-the-5th-of-november
It's amazing how much death and destruction has come from Communism, and how we don't just seem to want to willingly forget it, but rush gleefully headlong back into this kind of world.
"Fear is the mind killer"
-Frank Herbert, Dune
Write something, jerky.
Hahah, thanks for the nudge. Yes ma'am!
Brilliant piece, thank you for writing it. For me it was Fauci first saying that masks were utterly useless against a virus and then coming back and saying they were indispensable for protection. I knew, based on my 28 years of experiences in the medical device industry they were useless for viral protection so when he changed 180 degrees, I knew the fix was in and nothing coming out of D.C. henceforth was to be trusted. Not that it was prior to that but in regard to the "pandemic" my eyes were opened.
Books like The State of Fear, World War Z, 1984 and Brave New World were supposed to be warnings not playbooks. I used to think that people will believe what they want to believe but I don't anymore. The vast majority of people believe what they are told to believe. Fear is a teaching tool that is used by media corporations expertly around the world. Fear based behavior is generally devoid of critical thinking. Fear done effectively removes doubt and hope at the same time and kicks panic and despair into high gear. When people are afraid and without answers, they will listen to the loudest and/or most consistent, read repetitive, messaging. This is precisely why Trump had to go. He called out fake news for what it really is and that is the one thing that cannot be allowed. Policies come and go but once the media is fully exposed there is no going back. At least not to the old media scheme. Que the social media tyrants.
So, when Fear comes knocking on our hearts and mind, just say NO and then proceed to kick the living shit out of it so it doesn't come back.
That was a very good analysis, thank you very much. I think perhaps the points 6., Follow the money, is a very apt point and worth raising to the fearful to restore their minds to a proper balance.
I have said to a few people 'What would you not do to supposedly 'resist the virus'?' and said 'Would you jump over a cliff if the government said that then COVID would be over by Christmas?'.
It is so ridiculous that nobody in their right minds would say 'Yes'.
But I did say this to a nurse outside the hospital in Brighton, UK, where I was having immuno-therapy treatment. She looked away and replied 'You can't ask me that.'
It was only in the treatment room that I realised that she had been suicidal (I am aware she lived on her own). I wept for her. The next time I spoke to her she was better, but the whole thing made me extremely angry at those who perpetrated this fraud and those who willingly complied with the nonsense and failed to care for others.
Anyway, I did my own post on fear and reviewing what you said I would suggest laughter for dispelling fear.
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/fear-is-the-key/
And one on that lying toad Neil Ferguson.
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/2022/07/02/neil-ferguson-how-did-his-covid-19-statistics-fool-the-world/