Fear Itself
Well, there has been a bit of a gap lately between postings. There was a time where I would write something like, "Sorry about the delays!" or "Busy as hell!" I did this because I felt terrible that I had absolutely nothing to say but wanted to make up something that explained an extended absence from blogging. While I feel somewhat bad about not letting my brain go without a leash, I am also not feeling the compulsion to post five words anymore. It's not that I haven't had creative images in my mind or stories to tell, because they are always begging for attention and life.
Since the 9th of March, when I last posted, our world has gone through a bit of a change. Without stating more obvious sentences, I will just say a few words. When faced with fear, psychology suggests that we have two options, fight or flight. We stand up to what is frightening us, or we hide from it. Recent events make me question that those are our only two options. Humbly, I would like to submit a few more reactions to fear.
The first one I would like to add is panic. Closely related to flight, panic has a few more characteristics than trying to escape. Panic allows the human mind to seal itself off, and self-preservation becomes the only focus. This reaction is what is causing shameful shortages in our stores. Panicked people are rushing to buy up as much as they can and not caring who else might be in need. While we are screaming bloody murder about shortages, the majority of the globe is smirking at us happy that we are finally experiencing what they do daily, whether there is an outbreak or not.
The second one is greed. Closely related to panic, greed tells a person that instead of a charitable opportunity, something like this is the time to get rich quick. This type of reaction to fear is one that is not afraid; it is quite the opposite. These people are trying to create a living from fear and probably do not want the crisis to end. You know when you have met one because they will justify their actions under the guise of providing a public service. Others who are not as clever will call it the "American Way." The main problem with this type of reaction is they have no clue how horrible their mindset is.
The third reaction to fear is to ignore it. This reaction in the mind places novocaine on the part of our brain that triggers the fear response in the first place. Here are the people who firmly believe that it is a conspiracy of some sort, and it will not happen to them. They can also be people who so firmly believe that they can do whatever they want, much like the greed-brain, that there will be no consequences. We have seen them on Spring Break or writing nasty things in response to canceled events.
The fourth reaction is to feed the fear. While it would be easy to blame media outlets for this, and I do, but there are now more ways to fan the flames then 100 years ago. It seems that now there are experts on every form of social media that has facts to share or rumors to spread. Before shutting off the majority of what I used to enjoy scanning through, I noticed a disturbing pattern of politically motivated exchange of "facts." All sides are guilty of this. Can we honestly differentiate between information that is from reliable sources? It is becoming more and more difficult to confirm what can be proven versus what cannot.
The final reaction is what I call the memer reaction. Here, the brain decides to stand up to fear by making fun of it, or the brain can't deal with it, so it turns to humor. Regardless, we have been innodated with memes to the point that the power of creativity has unleashed. I love this one over all the others because it allows us to see what this outbreak is and how we can win. We keep our heads on straight and resist the other reactions and manage our shit.
Is this why I haven't posted in a few weeks? No, not really. I just didn't have much to share until today.
Since the 9th of March, when I last posted, our world has gone through a bit of a change. Without stating more obvious sentences, I will just say a few words. When faced with fear, psychology suggests that we have two options, fight or flight. We stand up to what is frightening us, or we hide from it. Recent events make me question that those are our only two options. Humbly, I would like to submit a few more reactions to fear.
The first one I would like to add is panic. Closely related to flight, panic has a few more characteristics than trying to escape. Panic allows the human mind to seal itself off, and self-preservation becomes the only focus. This reaction is what is causing shameful shortages in our stores. Panicked people are rushing to buy up as much as they can and not caring who else might be in need. While we are screaming bloody murder about shortages, the majority of the globe is smirking at us happy that we are finally experiencing what they do daily, whether there is an outbreak or not.
The second one is greed. Closely related to panic, greed tells a person that instead of a charitable opportunity, something like this is the time to get rich quick. This type of reaction to fear is one that is not afraid; it is quite the opposite. These people are trying to create a living from fear and probably do not want the crisis to end. You know when you have met one because they will justify their actions under the guise of providing a public service. Others who are not as clever will call it the "American Way." The main problem with this type of reaction is they have no clue how horrible their mindset is.
The third reaction to fear is to ignore it. This reaction in the mind places novocaine on the part of our brain that triggers the fear response in the first place. Here are the people who firmly believe that it is a conspiracy of some sort, and it will not happen to them. They can also be people who so firmly believe that they can do whatever they want, much like the greed-brain, that there will be no consequences. We have seen them on Spring Break or writing nasty things in response to canceled events.
The fourth reaction is to feed the fear. While it would be easy to blame media outlets for this, and I do, but there are now more ways to fan the flames then 100 years ago. It seems that now there are experts on every form of social media that has facts to share or rumors to spread. Before shutting off the majority of what I used to enjoy scanning through, I noticed a disturbing pattern of politically motivated exchange of "facts." All sides are guilty of this. Can we honestly differentiate between information that is from reliable sources? It is becoming more and more difficult to confirm what can be proven versus what cannot.
The final reaction is what I call the memer reaction. Here, the brain decides to stand up to fear by making fun of it, or the brain can't deal with it, so it turns to humor. Regardless, we have been innodated with memes to the point that the power of creativity has unleashed. I love this one over all the others because it allows us to see what this outbreak is and how we can win. We keep our heads on straight and resist the other reactions and manage our shit.
Is this why I haven't posted in a few weeks? No, not really. I just didn't have much to share until today.
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