fear

Los Angeles punk band that began 1977 and -- I discovered to my immense surprise the other day -- is still playing gigs, though apparently the only original member left is lead vocalist Lee Ving. Fear, captured live in the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, played crass, obnoxious, politically incorrect rock that at worst could be hideously misogynistic but at best possessed a raw bluesy power that made the band a classic of the old school. Their first self-titled album (containing the anthemic "I Don't Care About You (Fuck You)") is a must-have, as is the soundtrack to the Decline. The rest you can pretty much pass on.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Bene Gesserit litany against fear

From
Herbert, Frank. Dune. Ace Books, 1996

It's fear. It's the kind that attaches to the crown of your head, and spreads coldly and jerkily, like hair gel falling down a wall, along your spine into the pit of your stomach. It's like in the books: that cold sinking. Then its twin, the self-hatred. Following in a thinner, acidic streak, dripping. That realization that maybe this time, it's too late. Maybe you've blown it. Like Scarlett O'Hara and countless others careless until after the last moment. Like getting the acceptance and even sympathy from your parents about your schoolwork, and blowing it all by reading the Babysitters Club when you should be working on spelling. It's paralyzing. It creeps from your spine around your neck into your ears. It buzzes. It pushes the world still, into slow motion, and makes ridiculous the tiny thoughts left over. The nausea. Feeling completely at the mercy of... whatever you're at the mercy of. And knowing, wincing with the knowledge, that if you are forgiven then you might just do it all over again. The certain knowledge that you are utterly a poseur, empty, only made of shadows. Another tiny voice, far off, laughing at your melodrama. The slowness, the lead in your stomach. Another corner, abuzz with its own resentment: everything was fine until now. Why are we all of a sudden not forgiven. Why can you tell us that everything is okay and then it's not.

And you realize that you can hardly feel your fingers and your neck is stiff. And you no longer have a crown to your head: it seems to have disintegrated, there is no sensation left.

A ridiculous, dramatic comparison to much grander things. ohshityoublewit. Oh my god. I'm so dead. I'm never going to be whole. I'm never going to function in relationships. And it doesn't matter how much you warn them. They're never gonna get it till they feel it. And then they'll hate you for it.

The sudden realization that the net is not where you thought it was. And you're diving, you missed the catcher and you're rolling, you're hitting the floor. But you thought there was net.

A calmness of desparation. It's all over. It doesn't matter. Plans for living. Plans for where to go, instead. The ridiculousness that you're apologizing for someone else. And yet it doesn't really matter: nothing matters.

Worst of all is the tiny, flaming hope, the tenacious, butterfly hope that you can make it. It's the life that causes pain. It's the hope that causes fear. If things survive it will be so much work. To regain footing. To be heard. To feel secure. Security, when the net is gone? And yet, to be on the wire is life, they said. All the rest is waiting.

The Rat
or Fear

Rat pokes its head from out the shadows.
Letting its nose barely hit the pooled light on the sidewalk.

My arm and neck hair stands on end.
My bowels tighten and I taste copper in my mouth.

I see only his head, looking brown, soft and velvety in the late night half light.
Is he sinewy and and wiry, or sleek and glossy,
or fat and slow from feasting many nights on
the leavings of our waste?
Is this the one that leaves his droppings in lieu of ours?
Is he the spreader of disease
(and the stealer of cheese)?
The one that people run from
evil and mean
who would gnaw on our bones if we
couldn't
wouldn't
lift a hand
to stop him from desecrating our holiness?

Rat pokes its head from out the shadows.
Letting its nose barely hit the pooled light on the sidewalk.

My arm and neck hair stands on end.
My bowels tighten and I taste copper in my mouth.

I look closer
He's just a leaf, hung on a web
wind blowing back and forth.
Into the light.

Fear (1996)

Directed by: James Foley
Written by: Christopher Crowe
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Horror

Cast: Mark Walhberg, Reese Witherspoon, William L. Petersen, Amy Brenneman, Alyssa Milano, Christopher Gray II

Plot:
A 16-year-old girl falls in love with a handsome young man who is not all that he seems.

Review:
I liked Fear. It's a simple but well-executed thriller with a talented cast and an excellent use of suspense. The plot involves young Nicole Walker (Witherspoon) falling in love with handsome and charming David McCall (Wahlberg). Her father Steve Petersen naturally doesn't trust him at first and her stepmother Luara (Brenneman) is initially unsure but in the true spirit of clichéd movie teenage rebellion, Nicole continues to see him anyway. At first he seems to good to be true, but soon the cracks start to form in the relationship. Steve finds out that David has no family or apparent history and that he had moved from one orhpanage to the other. David has a mean temper and is irrationally jealous, which is shown when he beats up Nicole's friend Toby (Gray) just for walking with her. He's also obsessed with Nicole and is psychologically disturbed. When Nicole breaks off the relationship, he starts stalking her and turns to violence towards the end of the movie.

Although Fear may not be world-class, it's a good popcorn movie to enjoy when you feel like something interesting and thrilling.

Rating: R for strong graphic violence and terror, sexuality, language (US)

Links:
IMDB page - http://us.imdb.com/Title?0116287

Source:
IMDB

If you have cyberphobia, you shouldn't be seeing this article.

Yes, we humans are faced with fears everyday. Some may be common, like claustrophobia, the fear of tight spaces, and others may be unheard of, like arachibutyrophobia, the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. However, fears all have one thing in common - they obscure our aspirations, desires, and dreams. We are not born with fear - we gain it as our life goes on. And, like all things, fear is temporary. However, fear is like fat - it takes work to get rid of.

Have you ever seen the movie Arachnophobia? Good movie, I know. If you haven't the basic plot synopsis is this - a doctor with a fear of spiders must face up to that fear to save his small town from a colony of extremely powerful arachnids. I'm not going to ruin the ending for you, but all I will tell you is this - the only way the doctor can save his love ones is by defeating the spiders directly, no matter how scary they may be. And even though that Arachnophobia is only a Hollywood film (and the chances of us being forced to face our fears to save our loved ones from evil spiders is slim to none,) it still rings true in one aspect - facing your fears is going to come to you, whether it be voluntary or involuntary, and what you do in that situation matters on your courage.

Now, for all I know, the entire people body on this website may have no phobias at all, or everyone may have anatidaephobia, the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you. But there is one point that still holds true - courage. Even if you don't have a real (or imaginary) phobia, we all get scared at some point in time. Riding that giant roller coaster for the first time, performing in front of a tough audience, etc., but the way we cope with the situation determines whether we show that fear or not.

For a real life example, take Donny Osmond, a singer, actor and songwriter, who had a severe case of agoraphobia. It was so bad that he nearly passed out in and was almost unable to act in Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. However, with the help of therapy (and medication, too,) he was able to overcome his fear, not only because he had help but he made the decision to get that help. For another example of a man who lived his life in fear and believed in nothing but survival everyday until he grew into an adult, see Peter Liciaga, who is now on the film Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Our actions determine who we truly are - we are not born with our thoughts. You could face a traumatic event regarding the dark, and may become a scotophobic, or a horrific event where you lose a boner, and become a medomalaculophoic, but just because something in the past happened shouldn't change who you truly are. In fact, in the immortal words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and even though he said it in 1932, it still implies to us today.

Information on FDR is provided by http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5057/

Most of the phobias here are on http://phobialist.com

The imaginary fear anatidaephobia is from Gary Larsen's The Far Side.

Information on Danny Osmond was provided by http://www.phobias-help.com/Famous_People_With_Phobias.html

Peter Liciaga's homepage is http://liciagasbroadwayandbeyond.blogspot.com/. Yeah, it isn't much, but credit is needed.

My anxiety creates the box I feel I have to live inside. It's very small. The walls are very thick. And everything I want is outside of it.

"Fear me," it says. "I control your morning, noon, and night. I tell you what to avoid and how urgently. After all, I'm only trying to protect you."

How does one defy a defense mechanism? How do we defy our very nature? Fear exists for the preservation of life. But fear of creation, social interaction, and responsibility won't save my life - fear will only destroy it.

Fear (?), n.

A variant of Fere, a mate, a companion.

Spenser.

© Webster 1913.

Fear, n. [OE. fer, feer, fere, AS. fr a coming suddenly upon, fear, danger; akin to D. vaar, OHG. fara danger, G. gefahr, Icel. far harm, mischief, plague, and to E. fare, peril. See Fare.]

1.

A painful emotion or passion excited by the expectation of evil, or the apprehension of impending danger; apprehension; anxiety; solicitude; alarm; dread.

The degrees of this passion, beginning with the most moderate, may be thus expressed, -- apprehension, fear, dread, fright, terror.

Fear is an uneasiness of the mind, upon the thought of future evil likely to befall us. Locke.

Where no hope is left, is left no fear. Milton.

2. Script. (a)

Apprehension of incurring, or solicitude to avoid, God's wrath; the trembling and awful reverence felt toward the Supreme Belng.

Respectful reverence for men of authority or worth.

I will put my fear in their hearts. Jer. xxxii. 40.

I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Ps. xxxiv. 11.

render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due . . . fear to whom fear. Rom. xiii. 7.

3.

That which causes, or which is the object of, apprehension or alarm; source or occasion of terror; danger; dreadfulness.

There were they in great fear, where no fear was. Ps. liii. 5.

The fear of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal enterprise. Shak.

For fear, in apprehension lest. "For fear you ne'er see chain nor money more."

Shak.

© Webster 1913.

Fear, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Feared (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Fearing.] [OE. feren, faeren, to frighten, to be afraid, AS. fran to terrify. See Fear, n.]

1.

To feel a painful apprehension of; to be afraid of; to consider or expect with emotion of alarm or solicitude.

I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Ps. xxiii. 4.

With subordinate clause.

I greatly fear my money is not safe. Shak.

I almost fear to quit your hand. D. Jerrold.

2.

To have a reverential awe of; to solicitous to avoid the displeasure of.

Leave them to God above; him serve and fear. Milton.

3.

To be anxious or solicitous for.

The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children, therefore . . . I fear you. Shak.

4.

To suspect; to doubt.

Ay what else, fear you not her courage? Shak.

5.

To affright; to terrify; to drive away or prevent approach of by fear. z2

fera their people from doing evil. Robynsin (More's utopia).

Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs. Shak.

Syn. -- To apprehend; drad; reverence; venerate.

© Webster 1913.

Fear, v. i.

To be in apprehension of evil; to be afraid; to feel anxiety on account of some expected evil.

I exceedingly fear and quake. Heb. xii. 21.

© Webster 1913.