I decided to leave this post up for so long because in the time since I posted it, many hundreds of people have come here to see it. Some have bought the book UNMASKING FEAR and written to me about it. I will have a new post soon, but I think this post is extremely important, especially in the climate of fear deliberately being generated these days. Thank you for your interest.
“I am more afraid of the NSA than I am of terrorists,” said a local morning AM radio talker here in NYC. People called in to say that they to were living in fear of the American/Obama secret police state.
Other New Yorkers have been flooding the NY Times comment sections with statements attesting to their fear that under the new mayor crime will run riot and people will be murdered by the car-load. People in my community have expressed fear that soon crime and violence will be out of control in New York. Why is fear prevalent across the land? Who did this? Why did they do it?
Where does this come from?
It is deliberately implanted in the psyche by the “news” media. Why? To make money. Fear sells. With fear, people tune in to the TV/Radio news shows to see what is going to happen. Fear is the only thing the media has to sell. Look at the flood of TV ads and what they really sell: FEAR that your body stinks. FEAR that you have last year’s automobile/clothing styles/hair style/music and people are laughing at you. FEAR that you will lose your job. FEAR that you are getting older. FEAR that your money will soon be worthless (buy gold!!!!!). FEAR that your kids are on drugs. FEAR that you are too fat. FEAR that you may have a cold (oh, heaven forbid). FEAR of Muslims. FEAR that the stock market is rising and you are not in on it! FEAR that people don’t like you. FEAR that your children are failing in school… At the heart of advertising is always fear. I am sure that you can come up with more examples.
We all know that whole TV channels are dedicated to inciting fear. Usually, they are called “news” channels but take a look at them with this new lens. Look for the fear they promulgate. CRIME! INFLATION! THE FED! CONSERVATIVES! LIBERALS! WELFARE MOTHERS!!!! TERRORISTS (remember when it was COMMUNISTS? Same tune, different generation…)!!! It is what psychiatrists call “crazy-making” and we not only invite it into our homes, WE PAY FOR IT! We put out cold hard cash to watch programs that do nothing but scare us. Why do we do that? It makes no sense. Or… does it? Let’s see…
Fear in human beings triggers the Fight/Flight response. This is a very atavistic sensation and it is cut and dried: you fight or you run. That is it. So it precludes THINKING. When your thinking is shut down, you are a prime target for marketers who will sell you anything they want to sell you. And they know it. Of the several methods use by advertisers, one of the most common used to be called “The Bandwagon.” With this technique, you are told “everyone else is doing it, why aren’t you?” So at the heart of this is the fear that you are left out. That was a subtle approach compared to today’s advertising. How many people do you know who live in an almost constant state of anxiety and fear? And look what they fear: it is almost ALWAYS related to the big news headlines. Then that fear passes and – as if by magic – a new fear arises.
Because so many highly-paid people work full-time at engendering fear in the population, fear must be overcome. By overcoming fear we remove that arrow from their quiver. How do we overcome fear? Here are two things that will help. FIrst is a talk by the brilliant Ajahn Brahm. I urge you to take an hour to listen and absorb his message (of course, one of the biggest fears people have is that they just have no time. Well, make the time. See this instead of a TV show you habitually look at. This will reward you amply.)
In addition to the talk by Ajahn Brahm, I urge you to read this book from 1919, a time of great fear in the land…
Click Image To See This Book At AMAZON.COM
UNMASKING FEAR is a short read (with a new set of introductions I wrote) but a powerful book. Only when we, as a society, reject fear will we be free and fully in control of our lives. Stop running from crisis to crisis! Start the new year with the best gift ever: Freedom From Fear!
Remember the words of President Roosevelt:
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Rev. E. M. Camarena's Blog 
December 23, 2013 at 6:21 pm |
Sadly, fear is such a useful device for dividing and conquering I doubt we will ever stop allowing “them” to make us curry and cower. But self-knowledge is always a useful first step. Thanks for this.
February 14, 2014 at 6:40 am |
I followed your link from the NYTimes article on vitamins. I just finished listening to the 1 hr 5min. talk. It was really good. My commment is that, from my experience, there is a certain mental discipline which must be developed, if one is get more than momentary glimpses of appreciation of the freedom from fear. I would guess that many of us have had these glimpses, and will continue to have them, however we seem to stumble into the sunshine and it seems that we cannot control the clouds which obscure our sight of the absence of fear. So many then are are like men wandering in a dark valley just hoping for another glimpse of the sunlight, because we haven’t figured out a way to control our thoughts for a day after day after day existence in what can be a fearful environment. This is something I think, you gave a “softsell” in your talk 🙂 I am actually giving a wry smile. Wry because I haven’t learned the trick of sustaining that glimpse of fearlessness. IN march I am going to a very fearful country for 1 week, as a tourist. I am going to see the exterior of a kind of beast which lives there under the surface. I will see the beauty and the kindness which is presented to tourists. But I know clearly. I know that the beast is there. And its power is fearful, but not for me. I won’t be worried about myself, but for the people who are trapped there. Who cannot leave/ who wouldn’t leave even if given the opportunity. In the faces of the people on the street and in the tourist shops/hotels, I am sure I won’t know/see the difference between the types of people who know and undestand fear, and ones who don’t.
February 14, 2014 at 5:13 pm |
Thanks for joining the conversation with such an interesting comment on the monk’s talk about fear. I find him to be one of the most alert speakers on the scene today. I have a CD of a talk on happiness that he gave which is enlightening, to say the least.
I think you have made an excellent point about the mind. Mental discipline is not taught to children. Some schools now are teaching yoga, but that is attacked as un-christian and even called a violation of church/state. The problem with attaining mental discipline is that starting from childhood we are bombarded with advertising that creates extraneous images and desires in our heads. It is a non-stop stream of invasive mind clutter. Here is a question I ask people: What is the longest you ever went without talking? That is hard to do in modern society, but people can generally do what they really wish to do. I once went a whole 4 days without uttering a word. On the third day something astounding happened! That inner monologue, that stream of chatter we call “thought”… ceased. It just stopped and I experienced actual silence in my head. I still remember where I was. On a bus on Second Avenue east of Gramercy Park. And this was in 1979 or so.
One may find many meditation CDs designed to quiet the mind without doing something as drastic as clamming up for a week. And from there, we begin to experience our true selves, not the noise imposed on us by media. We really should disconnect from that electronic babble for our own sanity. I will now shamelessly plug my own book on mind power. You can read about it at THIS BLOG POST. Best of luck on your adventure in that other land. Remember that we really do attract the energy we put out, so if ever you had a need to conquer fear, this is it.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact me. If there is anything I may do for you, I can be reached through THIS LINK.