Morning Nuggets

[qos]

No, not chicken bits for breakfast. . .

One of my guilty pleasures on LJ (in addition to memes) is lotrboysdaily, where I learned this morning that Brad Dourif, who played Grima Wormtongue in the LOTR films also played Brother Edward in the Babylon-5 episode "Passing Through Gethsemane," one of my all-time favorites. *boggle*

In the course of conversation regarding the above-mentioned trivia, I visited the LJ of cosmob, with whom I share interests in LOTR, B5 and Singin' in the Rain. As far as I'm concerned, anyone whose default icon depicts Donald O'Connor performing "Moses Supposes" is worth checking out.

There I found the following quotation:

"Fear is the original sin.... Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading."
—L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle

A sentiment with which I agree 100% Fear is not only "the mind-killer, the little death that brings total oblivion" it is the conscience-killer as well. Fear both motivates and provides the justification for all kinds of evil. It kills love and trust. It makes us build walls. And it tells us that whatever we do is all right, because we owe it to ourselves to protect ourselves above all else.

Yes, some things should be feared, and guarded against. But try to imagine what the world would be like if we all had the courage to put more effort into understanding, compassion, and generosity instead of defensiveness and self-protection.

How many weapons in this world are readied, by individuals and nations, not because someone is actively planning aggression, but out of fear of what someone else might do? How many acts of violence and humiliation are motivated by fear of the Other, not because any one individual had done something to threaten or transgress?

Comments

[saskia139.livejournal.com]

You didn't know that was Brad "I'm not a psycho, I just play one on tv" Dourif in "Passing Gethsemane"? That was the episode that totally hooked me on B5. That was it, right there.

[qos.livejournal.com]

I was hooked during the first season, but "Gethsemane" was one of those that made me want to genuflect in the general direction of JMS.

[athenian-abroad.livejournal.com]

How many acts of violence and humiliation are motivated by fear of the Other

It's the humiliation angle that interests me mostly lately. Isn't it interesting -- and unsafe! -- that someone would attempt to humiliate a potential rival because he feared him? Can you imagine a better way to ensure the very attack he fears?

I suspect that this is a part of our primal wiring. Like dogs and other social animals, we come equipped with pre-programmed behaviors for dominance and deference, along with a desire to overturn the hierarchy when the opportunity to do so arises. The whole idea of dealing with peers, respectfully but without deference, is a learned construct, like calculus. Or so I suspect.

In any case, you've hit on the bloody mainspring of so many conflicts: I cannot trust my neighbor, so I must destroy him. And he, knowing that I may think this, cannot trust me...so he must destroy me. Which means that I was right in the first place.

Any politician who attempts to start such a cycle should be summarily executed. Because there's just about no way out once the bloodshed starts.

[qos.livejournal.com]

Isn't it interesting -- and unsafe! -- that someone would attempt to humiliate a potential rival because he feared him? Can you imagine a better way to ensure the very attack he fears?

You're right, but unfortunately, fear shuts down the brain as well as the conscience, as far as I can tell. I am reminded of Ben Kingsley's observation that Mohandas Gandhi was radicalized after he was thrown off a train when he refused to vacate the private compartment he'd paid for and take a seat in the common car: "I suppose the lesson is don't throw brash young men off of railway cars" (or words to that effect).

The whole idea of dealing with peers, respectfully but without deference, is a learned construct, like calculus. Or so I suspect.

Now that is an interesting hypothesis.

Any politician who attempts to start such a cycle should be summarily executed. Because there's just about no way out once the bloodshed starts.

Were you deliberately engaging in irony there? With starting the bloodshed yourself? I take your point -- but you also illustrate mine very neatly. Surely there are other ways of preventing the politician from engaging in fear-attacks besides killing him?

[athenian-abroad.livejournal.com]

Were you deliberately engaging in irony there?

Sort of: the passive voice was seriously meant. That is, the thing ought to happen, but nobody ought to actually do it. A bolt of lightning would be welcome. Can you arrange? ;-)

The problem, though, is a real one. Playing on fear and a sense of humiliation works really, really well. And to somebody who wants power -- and doesn't care who gets hurt in the process -- the temptation to use it must be overwhelming.

[amqu.livejournal.com]

Brad Dourif is a very underrated actor. He is magnificent.

He was the Betazoid without a conscience on Star Trek: Voyager who ended up helping the holographic doctor save the ship from the Kaazon. He was so great in that.

Fear

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love throws fear outside, because fear exercises a restraint. Indeed, he that is under fear has not been made perfect in love.

[qos.livejournal.com]

I think that quote from 1 John is a key piece of wisdom, and one that doesn't get looked at enough.