[NOTE: I just found this in my unpublished blog written in late 2016, for some reason it never got published; I'll leave it unedited--as relevant to our times today or not--you can decide]
Indeed, it's a "crazy" time in America right now. Many here are completely dismayed at the killings of police and police killings of mainly black men and on and on... Black Lives Matters protests, and the list is long but "terrorism" is everywhere to put it bluntly. You sort of have to really live here embedded in American society, or more like "American culture of fear" to really get it! To really feel the anxiety, fear, panic and terror that "sits" there in everybody's gut!
I agree with anyone who says, "It's a crazy time in America."
And, of course many political pundits and talk show hosts and news broadcasters and neighbors down the street will be talking about this... or, they will be ignoring and denying and cover-up all this feeling. All this 'crazy' stuff going on and the American presidential election is just perfectly cast as the stage for a crazy battle with likely Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump going at it head to head, like a great world boxing championship fight for the fall... to see who is going to win the powerful position of President of the USA.
My point of this blog is not to be "political" and enter all that discourse and analysis, as if the world needs one more voice repeating pretty much the same mainstream discourse, not do I want to repeat the typical and predictable radical activist language and analysis. I'll go only so far as to say, I agree with anyone who says, "It's a crazy time in America."
What is going on, is a whole lot of fear-mongering amongst Americans in this election and beyond it. The American culture of fear is nothing new, and yet, as I and so many other critics have pointed out for years, is growing rapidly and 'peaking' in the crazy kinds of violence we are seeing here. It was bound to turn out like this. Just like 9/11 was bound to happen. People overly fear-full will 'blow' and continue to do so until there is a ... change, a transformation, a revolution... something. It is unsettling times.
My perspective, rather than all the political analysis that is common, is from that of a fearologist, and expert and leader of the Fearlessness Movement. So, I'll say a few things below that may help you keep this crazy times in perspective. I'll even make some 'prophetic' guesses. I'll even offer a little advice. I don't often say such things nor promote that as my task. I trust people, somewhere inside, will know the truth and the best way to go... yet, sometimes they need to hear it from someone else. In this case, a fearologist, who has studied the history and dynamics of the culture of fear phenomenon for over 27 years.
First, what we are seeing are not only crazy times but dangerous times. Historically, every civilization and culture goes through this when it is in its death-throws, dying, and desperately trying to cling on to an "old paradigm." I know this is simplistic, my point is to keep a historical perspective on change and big change that some civilizations, cultures have to go through to correct themselves, to die and be reborn again--as you may want to say it. American culture is dying. It has been well documented by historians, cultural critics, political critics... and sure, not the mainstream media or others of that old Order are going to admit this.
Second, fear (Fear) is the great catalyst for these crazy times and all the extremist reactions, and in American politics this last year and half especially, it is ripe with Donald Trump running as candidate. He's a great fear-mongering leader, pretending to be fearless to save everyone who is afraid of the way things are and he is going to rebuild the American Empire... blah, blah.. these kinds of crazy leaders appear all throughout history... we should at least thank him for showing us how afraid Americans are (including himself) of losing what they feel they are losing... the American Dream is dying and people are having to awaken to a globalized reality that cannot be shut out at the American borders by "walls" of ignore-ance, arrogance and "Walls"-- Fear will remain, not matter what Trump does, or Hilary for that matter. The culture of fear is a bigger 'Beast' than Trump or anyone, and yet Trump is the kind of archetypal leader to purvey Fear... and it is working. Most Americans are really terrified what will happen if this guy gets to be President. Don't worry about it... he won't.
Third, Trump and his fear-mongering followers are going to be a loud dramatic voice alright, and they won't go away... but they will get trounced when it comes to voting time this late fall... why? because a very powerful Democratic force--a threesome, of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton and all they stand for in this classic "Good" against "Evil" if you want to use dramatic terms. American society, in the Transformation that began heavily (albeit, still in the margins) in the 1960s in this country and many Western countries around the world (especially)--where the average consciousness of the people is sliding toward a just society and one they wish no longer to be built on fear and maintained on fear--and, especially they resent "leaders" who do so and resort to punishment and regimes of surveillance and exclusivity (i.e., racism, for one)... no, what I witness living here in the USA in 2008, with Obama's decisive win in that election was a "felt" change--a big change-- that there are large forces in cultural evolution going on in this country and around the world for a "better" way to go--even a new society, and I knew then that American's on the whole (at least over 50% or so) won't return to the old patriarchal ways. The fact that Bernie Sanders did so well in popularity, running on a rather 'far Left' social democracy agenda in this country and then Hilary (a women) coming to be the next president--these are signs of a country going through crisis at the cultural level and they show there will not be a going back to old style Republican governments. The same trend hit Canadians in this last election of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister. These countries will not 'go back'... so, don't worry about it.
Fourth, the various extremist factions however, are worrisome and will cause major damages, and attempt to fragment the Fearlessness Movement and the society of the just and the Good... for sure, they are an awesome 'enemy' worthy of respect for their capabilities to "fight" for the Old patriarchal White ways... ways of Fear's Empire. I also know, that telling people not to worry, or be afraid in excesses... or being paranoid... is not always very helpful. You cannot just "tell" someone not to be afraid. Politicians and all kinds of leaders and our parents perhaps, have told us those kinds of things... they are minimally helpful. What is helpful is to be aware of how you are being put into a trance by spectacle and dramatic enactments and events in a crazy society undergoing crisis. I make sure I watch when I am being put into "shock." I watch how susceptible my wife for example is when she watches the "news" (the horror and spectacle) etc. Many Americans are so in this cultural hypnosis, they haven't a clue that they are -- but worse, as my colleague Four Arrows teaches, when in this 'shock n' awe' state of consciousness (often felt as dismay or despair)--there is the problem of them being hypnotized by "Authorities" (like political leaders, and candidates, among just a few)--and you will eventually be "following" them and the kind of fear-based way of thinking they emit and transmit... this, is the worse of "learning" one can get conditioned by. So, my advice, "turn off the media" for one, and listen very sparingly if you need to... but mostly, you don't need to. There are other ways to educate yourself without the "screen" of spectacle that operates on using "fear" to get viewer attention and votes.
I think this is enough, for now. Too much information isn't useful either. Be focused, and clear "who you are" and "what you stand for" and what you are aligned for. I make all those choices everyday when I feel the wide-world emotional anxiety and terror--trying to pull me off-center and into debates that basically are between two choices of which neither one of them is really the "best" choice. The best choice, and my vote, always goes to those less fear-based in their motivations and actions. Currently, there is no political party anywhere, I know of, in the world, and certainly not in America,
