Fear – what’s it all about?
Times have changed – what has become a
culture of courage has become a generation of fear – kids today cannot climb
into their beds without checking the closet or under their beds first. Fear has
become the dominant factor in the world. What was once generations of
courageous and brave people have become a cultural phenomenon known as generations
of baby cries and whiners. Exceptions to the rule are noted for many good kids
know the differences because of good parenting.
I never climbed into bed without
checking the closet or checking under the bed first. I climbed into the bed undauntingly
and closed my eyes to go to sleep. Looking forward to my dreams whether they were
good or bad or evil. The bed was as safe a place as any other place. There were
no designated ‘safe places’ at school, at work or anywhere else including the parks
where we played.
Yes, we had the boogie man, we had the
witches of bad and the legends of horror just like anyone else did but the
difference was we didn’t go to sleep with them as companions and partners in
life. What has changed is the game of hide and seek with an added touch of horror
that creates terror, anxiety and excruciating horror to make the game more
exciting.
In the past, we made sure there was
enough distance between imaginary and reality to go to sleep with peace. In our
house, the closet door was never left open and the bed was never checked. There
was no fear of anyone hiding near and causing fear inside our heads and hearts.
So how did all their fear foster, materialize
and become such a gross factor in our lives? What single source can we point to
and say, that’s what caused the child to be afraid? How do we resolve all this
fear mongering by movies, television series, the news and the stories repeated
by grown adults to their children?
It is with a certain degree of fact
that these fears materialized and caused nightmares because of too many ghost
stories, too much violence in the movies and television series that should be
rated to exclude children but under today’s parental guidance, ignored and
allowed until they are old enough to understand the difference between
Hollywood and reality.
Our brains have been manipulated,
orchestrated and fabricated with lies rather than truths. Kids today can hardly
tell the difference between real and imaginary. This line is so thin, they are
acting out what could be a matter of life and death without knowing the consequences
for such behaviors.
Whether the games played are ‘Call to
Duty’ or joining others playing the ‘Ouija Board,’ the memory of the movie ‘Exorcist’
and many others such as ‘Chain Saw Massacre’ are fresh in the heads of children
to be real. ‘Freddy Kruger’ is real, the hockey mask of ‘Jason’ can be related
to other violence inducted parts of our entertainment world but the reality is
rarely divided into fiction and non-fictional characters or events. It seems that
children (and adults) are attracted to things that freak them out.
With special effects and “Walking Dead”
scenarios on TV daily, the thoughts of violence acted out is never left alone.
It thrives in the minds of our children who repeat this to other children and
make a game of it.
Sadly, because of their imagination and
unconnected links to realities they are not worried or fearsome of the more
realistic things in life such as family being sick or dying or even hurt – physically
or emotionally. This dumbing down is also numbing down generations. We have
become immune to the real-world fears and struck a partnership with artificially
created fears that seldom exist in real life.
So, as we deal with the reality and
imaginary worlds around us, our children fear body parts being thrown all over the
place, head decapitated and blood gushing out of all body extremities and
organs. This is the supernatural and popular culture that dominates today’s
thinking and mindset. Few people believe in the reality that this is all
created by the spreading of falsehoods, myths and legends. The lies have become
the truths in many such cases.
So, as it stands, more people are drawn
to horror and the paranormal than the non-fictional genre of books, movies and
other forms of entertainment. This explains why people seek excitement in their
lives through artificial means. They want to experience the fear because it
gives them harmonic pleasure with their hormones and their dopamine and
endorphins that gives them the ‘fight or flight’ sensation as a response.
Thus, it has become the goal of new
generations to seek a ‘thrill’ by inducing a chemical rush otherwise known to
us as a good scare but without the touch of reality it was supposed to bring
when presented. In all practical senses, being scared while being in a ‘safe
zone’ is moronic as it serves no purpose other than knowing the threat is not
real. Perhaps this is where the answer lies in this oxymoronic situation. We induce
fear to be scared under controlled circumstances and conditions that keeps us
safe.
How dangerous is this when the
conditions or circumstances change in the real world. One can see the traumatic
impact of such misalignments of emotions and the harm it causes. The scary
element of such excitement is the fact that this may be a backdrop or them of
good versus the evil with the person, young or old, persevering in the face of adversity
and dealing with the imaginary rather than the real world.
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