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March For Our Lives, centered in Washington, DC. leading Millenials' speakers, from 11 years old to teens of all kinds, shown giving voice, in numbers of hundreds of thousands, to their anger and frustration, their fears and hopes of the future ... and mostly showing they will no longer wait for adults to solve the problem of violence, trauma and social deterioration because politicians, community leaders, and adults generally have not done enough to make their lives safe and secure. The surface symptom of their battle centers on gun violence (especially in America). To see this movement and their rebellion in words, "without fear" and "enough is enough" and "never again" go to the four hour media coverage https://www.democracynow.org/live/watch_democracy_now_march_for_our

To understand one core dimension of this problem that these children and youth are standing up for, is to understand that when the so-called "safe," "wealthy" and "privileged" youth are attacked by a mass murderer in one of their schools (e.g., Parkland, in Florida Feb. 14, 2018), then enough is enough and masses of organized protest happens. And it was a revolution and movement very evident, very rooted, very generationally based. Youth will not lay down any longer, so it appears, and watch their future deteriorate before their very eyes by threats of being killed in schools or traveling to school--by terror(ism) and the resultant fear from victimization and collective trauma, etc. They are speaking out they do not want their schools and communities to end up as militarized "war zones" [1] where just about anyone has a gun hidden away in wait for the next battle. This is not the fearful kind of lives these traumatized youth want to live. 

"The truth about youth... is that they have learned and been conditioned to trust humans less and less since the Boomer's generation of peace and love. Youth now face the great challenge of whether to continue down that road of fear and mistrust or turn their generations' perspective around. Without them on the path of fearlessness, we can be certain the result will be deadly." 

The protest of these youth of course has great historical ripples recently as I have documented the "No Fear Movement" in America (especially) since the early 1990s. I see this March for Our Lives as the culminating breakthrough and much needed, of what started as a commercialized "No Fear!" slogandia in 1990 in California when a few young entrepreneurs began to put No Fear! on just about everykind of clothing thinkable that youth were buying. This was a time of wars and especially the HIV contagion which shook so many people because of deaths from a disease mostly sexually transmitted and traveling through youth-based communities without anyone knowing the cause or cure at the time. 

The word "Fearless" was then a follow-up as the next branding term for many commercial products and advertising, all of which are meant to capture what the young people were wanting in their lives, as they were getting sick and tired of living in so much fear and terror. With more acts of mass murders through guns and terrorism attacks, etc. the world was just becoming more and more unsafe and it became harder to trust just about anyone. 

I have to say, I so appreciate the youth movement today of children and teens, and seeing such masses united on the streets, are no doubt a revolutionary change ... trailing and necessarily built on the young adult movements of Occupy in 2011, of Black Lives Matter, of the women's and #Me Too movements --all led at a time of total frustration by so many people, especially post-9/11 and especially with elitism and facism growing rampantly, and especially the levels of violence everywhere. The trauma and fear has led too many young people to be paranoid. If you listen to their talks at the March for Our Lives, you'll hear this comment about fear, and how they want to live "without fear" in their daily lives, but I was pleased they didn't just throw around the arrogant slogans of the past, of "No Fear!" or "Fearless" ... no, they were more talking about how paranoia was now their norm, and their ghost, living with it everyday, they have simply seen too much too close and they are hurting and grieving and ducking bullets. They do not believe most forms of adult management of fear (or guns) is doing much good at all. They don't want to live in a war zone in their communities and schools anymore. Of course, the marginalized youth and adults in America have been saying that for decades, and so have the wartorn countries of the world, and refugees. But now it seems, the tide has come in, and the scales of intolerance to living in paranoia have flipped. And it is damn well time! Good for all youth for being intolerant of an insane normalization of fear/paranoia [2] that has occurred in the world in the last century especially. 

But youth need assistance from adult allies to be successful in their goals to overcome the terrorism, the toxic fearism-t, and paranoia in societies. I invite adults and youth on this FM blog and elsewhere to join dialogues and actions to help the cause. There is so much good knowledge and wisdom available throughout the world's fearlessness teachings and non-violence movements to provide wise guidance for youth and everyone. It is obvious the March for Our Lives has tapped into some of those experiences of nonviolent protest but there is much more too. There is quality information on the faults of oppressive adultism and how it makes youth's concerns secondary. It is there. I have worked with some others, to make this available. Let me know how I can help (r. michaelfisher52 [at]gmail [dot] com). 

p.s. it seems my prediction in the late 1980s is coming true--it will be fear that unites the most people for the common good, not love ... love comes into it but fear is the major driver for liberation--and, fearlessness is the meta-motivation more invisible in joining the natural telos of Fear towards Love .... 

Notes: 

1. Eventually, more or less, the truth is going to come out in these youth protests, and actions. The truth is, that America is a warring country, always has been, and wants to dominate the world. You do that by "guns" of one kind or another. So, within the domestic sphere of society, school culture, urban realities, guess what... guns are everywhere because people for the most part are so afraid and so think war is the answer. America can truly change if youth rebel and don't stop... on this way to making countries everywhere give up on the war strategy as primary in fear management (i.e., safety and security management)... of course, we need lots of other strategies to handle the conflicts going on, which are real, and in which some take up arms to try to win.  

2. This is like an "addiction to fear" which is arguably characteristic of what many critics call the "culture of fear" phenomena.

Trigger Warning: the following is not what you will usually be exposed to in the dosage (or paradigm) of what is called "counterterrorism"

The following map/guide is the skeletal outline for a Series of Articles (blogs) and an eventual booklet to be published soon. I'll start these on this site and eventually expand them. The map/guide and series is an attempt to take a fearist perspective on the current rise of terror(ism) and its effects. The map/guide and the title of this blog may catch your attention. You may think of a spectrum of ways to manage terror(ism), as I have utilized for a long time the spectrum of consciousness model of the philosopher Ken Wilber. As well, I have added my own research on fear management systems along that spectrum, of which the current map/guide (below) is an example of how it can be utilized. The title "Map/Guide for the Terrorist Fighter" is left ambiguous with many meanings, depending on how one wants to 'read' this. There is a long philosophical rationale (based on a philosophy of fearism by Fisher & Subba and a resultant identified new fearist perspective) for why any intervention into the "problem of terror(ism)" requires an essential moral imperative to serve both the "terrorist" (so-called--and, often called freedom fighter, depending on who's perspective does the labeling) and serve those harmed by those values, beliefs and actions of the "terrorist"--the former would be called the "victim" of such acts--at least, initially. 

You may notice I am being very conscious and particular in how I frame the entire discourse that proceeds around anything we might call "terrorism"-- and it is in this cautious and exploratory modality I and Subba suspect we'll find much better analysis and solutions than what is offered today in what could be called an old-fashioned Modernist perspective (i.e., Victimist, Survivalist, Thrivalist). You can see where I have located the Fearist perspective on the spectrum. Again, there are numerous philosophical arguments and theoretical positions to be taken to articulate all of what you see in this map/guide. But that will have to wait its time to unfold. I am interested to put out this 'new' spectrum approach and let people begin to digest it. I look forward to our further dialogues and explorative co-inquiries on all this. We truly need something much better than what is offered today anywhere--around the world. The philosophy of fearism has great potential to disrupt and re-form our entire way of understanding terrorism--and, of course, the new book Philosophy of Fearism: A First East-West Dialogue (soon to be published) will give lots more background. 

The obvious electric condition of affect flowing in the USA and a lot of Europe (at least) these days comes from the recent "terrorist attacks" in France and recently California... linked to ISIL Organization and the movement for a radicalization of the Islamic State conception (not all that different, but more publicized, than the Zionist State conception of the official Israeli government). And one could find another 20 or so "rogue state" types of organizations or "nations" in the world that are one way or another fighting for their right to exist, to critique the hegemony and status quo and defend themselves against the oppressive larger states and their enemies. 

I open with this rather cold-hearted political analysis of what is going on. I am not going to continue such a sociopolitical, geographical or historical analysis of the problem of "terrorism" (some call "freedom fighting") as many would call it in the mainstream, certainly in the USA. Rather, you may see that I am viewing the current (and ongoing) crisis as political and psychological, philosophical and theological, sociological and historical... all at once. There is criminal activity going on and "justice" (usually as revenge killing) going on. I find the whole mess of conceptions, perspectives and barbaric actions on 'both sides' an indicator of how sick our world has become in handling conflict, in handling views totally different, and views that are suppressed by the dominant. Don't forget to listen to the recent state address Pres. Obama gave in response to these recent rising attacks on European and American soil. Obama is, like 99.9999% of Americans dedicated to "wipe out" any such organization (e.g., ISIL is the latest target) that is against the USA policies, values, capitalist and military expansionism and its claim to exceptionalism via its claim to moral superiority, and a free democracy. 

Let me turn, and say, from a fearanalysis, from a perspective of fearlessness... any system that cuts off another part of its own system (i.e., a world system) and claims that it is to be "wiped out" by any means (be clear, there is not need in times like this for the USA military might to follow any kind of legal or just framework or attention to human rights or international codes of ethical war conduct... not for a second is that mentioned in Obama's speech... he actually is out to punish and kill people without a trial (a justification beneath all capital punishment regimes)... listen to the calm voice and rhetoric, it is very clear, as it was similarly when former Pres. Bush Jr. called for an equal revenge and the pres. of France recently did like wise--oh, you are able to do that once you declare "war" on some organization, some state, etc. This my friends, is the way we in the West do leadership even from so-called liberal or democratic governments. This is sadly how far we've come in what we have learned went so wrong with the American response to 9/11. 

Let me turn again, to focus down to the question I raise for the Fearlessness Movement (a global phenomenon: see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fear_educator/sandbox)... What role has fearlessness and fearless leadership to play in the current rise of actions and reactions to terror(ism)? Obviously, it has a huge role. First, any fear-based means of trying to control ("manage") or destroy ("wipe out") terror(ists) and terror(ism) and organizations that use fear to terrorize... all will fail. That is what the philosophy of fearism (and fearlessness) argues... at great length... in most all of my publications for 26 years and in the recent book by Desh Subba and myself coming out soon.

Yet, that may still sound abstract to many, unfortunately, who have not chosen to study my work or Subba's and who have ignored the experience of the ineffectiveness of fighting terror with fear-based means (e.g., punishment and terrorizing, revenge killing, wars, acts of injustice that are rationally and cooly justified, e.g., Pres. Obama's latest speech to the American public). Again, in this one blog I only introduce this topic for the FM ning. I am not propounding out a philosophy or theory that itself cannot be challenged. I wish it would be. I'd love to argue, dialogue, conflict, and grow with others sincerely engaged in such a discourse, seriously engaged in asking ourselves if we want to learn something "new" about the way terror(ism) moves in societies, and in the world systems of today. I know there are hundreds if not thousands of arguments, journal articles, research studies, philosophical and political critiques... but to this day (although I have not read them all), I see nothing "new" or anything I'd call a fearlessness approach. I'll stop, and await to see who else may want to join this discussion (oh, and feel free to set up a FORUM on this site for this very topic).

Journaling on this all this morning, and lamenting on the repetitive failed-strategies to solve a "Wicked Problem" (see two blogs prior)... wouldn't it have been so nice to hear Pres. Obama truly say somethings different--truly re-frame the problem differently--at a higher (mature) integral level guided by fearlessness? Oh, he says bluntly, he is not attacking ISIL out of fear, for that is what the terrorists would want. Cooly, bravely, as only American males are so good at on camera, he says, we will do what needs to be done to "keep Americans safe." Which will not of course happen, as we saw in the past 14 yrs... terror only moves and morphs, going further below the surface... and the violence that goes with it... and the more you try to wipe it out... the more it duplicates and spreads in more difficult ways to detect and to stop. Okay, wouldn't it have been nice to hear the president say, "All of the recent tragedies, and crimes, have left the world, and certainly many Western nations with a great dilemma.... a great problem we have not yet figured out how to solve but solve we must. It is the Fear Problem. If we don't stop the Fear Problem we will not stop the Terror Problem. Fearism (as toxic-fear made ideological weaponry) is after all, that which operates under terrorism. Let's all take moments to reflect critically on our own part in "THE TERROR THAT COMES TO VISIT US" that is, where, why, how... and less ought we focus on only the criminals of these acts of mass murders... even though, a part of us wants to hate their hate towards us."

And after my fantasy Pres. Obama speech, I am thinking and asking myself: So, Michael, are you saying, as it appears above, that whatever organization of thoughts, values and actions that exists, has a right to exist, because it exists? Yes, I guess I am saying that. It seems the only ethical coherent fearlessness philosophy that will bring sanity back. Notice, at no point, have I condoned in that right to exist (the opposite of "wiping them out") that such acts are free from social challenge and free from scrutinized, informed judgments by those whom we entrust (e.g., court systems--even if imperfect). Such discernment, sometimes judgements on ethical and legal grounds are necessary for sociality of systems--yet, they ought to be non-fear-based as we decide to to label things "criminal" or "not"... now, that all get's more complicated, for sure and a good theory of fear and fearlessness is essential to guide that process. But declaring war on everything that is totally different than your set of ideas, values, etc. is no way to end the cycle of Domination-Conflict-Fear-Violence that is really 'killing' us all...