Wednesday, Jan 06, 2010

Crash course in Authoritarianism through the ages

Legendary Leg-Iron: Fear The Witch, For It Is You

"The real fear, the ultimately brilliant part of it, is that nobody is actually scared of the 'witch' most of the time... Nowadays, people are not afraid of racists. They are afraid of being labelled a racist. They are not afraid of paedophiles. They are afraid to go anywhere near children in case they are labelled paedophile. It's not smoking they fear, it's the idea that if they let the smoker get tobacco scent on their clothes, others might think they smoke too. It's not alcoholism they fear but the perception of others that maybe they are drinking too much."

Posted by mark wadsworth @ 12:11 AM (889 views) Add Comment

15 Comments

1. little professor said...

Not like you to post this kind of off-topic stuff, mark

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 04:02AM Report Comment
 

2. mark wadsworth said...

I know, but it was the single greatest blogpost ever, which as many people as possible should read and understand and I thought what the heck

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 08:18AM Report Comment
 

3. Offtooz said...

Agreed, excellent stuff.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 08:37AM Report Comment
 

4. happy mondays said...

Fear is a lack of familiarity or understanding of someone / something & a good natural instinct to have...

Nothing to fear apart from fear it's self ( Jiddu Krishnamuti)

Good to break the mould Mark & throw a little side punch in now & again..

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 09:09AM Report Comment
 

5. drewster said...

I liked it. Long on ideals and short on actual plans though.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 11:41AM Report Comment
 

6. refusetobuy said...

To bring it on topic, the fear of not being able to afford a house.

Most people are/were not buying houses because they think they will go up. They are/were afraid that they will go up in the future and they will be priced out.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 11:55AM Report Comment
 

7. mark wadsworth said...

TRB, exactly.

OT1H, people fear artificially induced price rises, but OTOH what causes those price rises is the entirely artificial fear that 'Britain is an overcrowded island' and that if we liberalised planning laws even a tiny bit that all of a sudden 'the countryside would be concreted over and future generations would starve to death'.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 12:02PM Report Comment
 

8. mountain goat said...

But is most fear from external sources or internal to the individual, i.e. from a more innate, existential or spiritual nature? I would argue the latter because you always find some people more chilled out, whereas the same people freaking out time and again suffering anxiety. Put these people in utopia and they will still find something to fear.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 12:04PM Report Comment
 

9. Moominpapa said...

The description of himself is a bit irksome. Infact that was enough to put me off reading the blog.
All he needs now is a sadwiche board, a soap box and few paid mates to stand around trying to look interested.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 12:04PM Report Comment
 

11. drewster said...

RTB / MarkW - Seems like it was a rational fear, up until recently?

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 12:20PM Report Comment
 

12. refusetobuy said...

A self reinforcing fear. Are hypochondriacs rational?

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 12:34PM Report Comment
 

13. drewster said...

My point is that these fears all have rational roots.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 01:04PM Report Comment
 

14. rumble said...

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 01:48PM Report Comment
 

15. shipbuilder said...

Mmm - and the overriding message is - fear the government! Fear political correctness! Fear the evil green menace! lol.

I prefer -

http://www.anxietyculture.com

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 05:24PM Report Comment
 

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