04.03.2020
You fondle my trigger, then you blame my gun
~ Fiona Apple
The oldest trick in the narcissist's playbook is manipulation through fear. Smart sociopaths know that the fear of fear itself is far worse than the facts, which rarely get in the way of a good story. They will fuel your panic and then tell you to calm down, leaving you drowning in a sea of dread and woefully stricken.
In the olden days, the best way to revive flagging economies and heroise leadership was to go to war. It almost guaranteed you won the next election and enabled incumbents to enact a war footing, the kind that kept everyone off balance and terrorised. Cue propaganda to unite against a common faceless enemy, channelling that fear into control and funnelling funds and power into the pockets of the unscrupulous. Eyes widened see far less than those narrowed. Thumping hearts don't stop to consider sense or reason.
Welcome to 2020, where big pharma are the new arms dealers and pandemics are the next theatre of war. All the toilet paper and hand sanitiser in the world cannot innoculate you from the insidious manipulation of the fear of death that lies within us all. Once again the facts - less readily available than front pages of empty shelves and black market masks - are not permitted to obscure the great big scarytale.
News is limited by its source. Information is a function of its author. Those in power have felt the ground beneath their towers shaking since the end of the world in 2012, hitting fever pitch late last year. The times are indeed changing and with them a rising personal agency, the kind speaking truth to power. I wonder what the next best way to stop protests and marches would be, if you had tried to outlaw them and failed? This is the double down, the created crisis that is designed to get their hands back on a wheel that cannot now be degreased.
Witness the slipping and see its greater purpose. Feel their panic and let it engender your courage to stand outside prescription. See beyond the terrorising to a bigger more sustainable picture and a new ending to the oldest trick in the book.
There's a sign on the wall
But she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook
There's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
~ Stairway to Heaven
GIF of Elaine stealing all the toilet paper reminiscent of supermarkets in Sydney right now. Because questionable priorities.
Words c. Kerrie Basha 2020