Collective Fears

It's not exactly the best time for a rant, but the inability to sleep today is taking its toll and the brain, as usual, is compensating for the physical inactivity during this period by working overtime, burning calories 24/7 and escaping to some strange alleys. I would even say that I have learned to be proud of the contents of my modest brain.

And so... I listen daily to the media, in conversations with neighbors, relatives and acquaintances, I read in newspapers and virtual platforms and whatever I hear and see - the fear of Jihad that the refugees from the Levant brought with them has settled everywhere. Quite naturally, as an instinctive reaction when a man is looking for a cute female person - I feel like hitting them with a hammer, changing my name to Pol Pot and starting a campaign of revolutionary re-education that will be carried out in the Prespa and Ovchepole fields.

And why such an outburst of hatred?

Because the kingdom does not live in reality. Sometimes from collective fears, which are currently caused by the Jihad that is just knocking on the door. How many kingdoms have suffered as a result of jihadism in the Republic of Khunzistan and in the Balkans in general is not known. But it is well known how much they suffer from the real mass murderers, the cancerous diseases that are spreading more and more, diabetes has become something that is understood in almost every family, cardiovascular diseases are killing as usual, stress and nerves due to everyday life are taking huge tolls, paradise would completely fall apart if it were not for the chemicals called legal drugs that they swallow every day like candy, mental illnesses are growing into an epidemic, suicide has acquired the right to citizenship, due to the retarded driving habits of the devout population, paradise is killed every year as many as would be killed if an entire Boko Haram brigade were to be carried to these regions, your compatriot, co-religionist and fellow citizen asks you to return 30 euros in cash from the 150 that he has to pay you as the minimum wage, daily humiliations in a workplace where people die every day and everyone is left crippled for life, a healthcare system that is already starting to raise doubts about whether it is here for to save or ruin lives...

Those who have had the misfortune to remain unlucky for one reason or another are socially isolated to the extent that they die quietly without the noise of a gunshot or without bloody scenes in the showered partnership with a person with whom you are emotionally or sexually involved - are a total failure in most cases and another geyser of misery. And the people worry that Jihad would kill them?!

Which means that if the population were not so detached from reality and from real everyday threats to health and life - one would expect bombastic headlines in the media like - `Heart attacks and strokes have killed x people this year!`, `Diabetes is stalking you, reduce your sugar intake!`, `Don't torture the people you claim to love, only evil comes from that!`, `New case of death of a construction worker who fell from scaffolding, reporters are on the spot!`, `Don't cheat on your girlfriend because you will hurt her a lot and suffering is already being exported, it's not worth it` or at least something along the lines of `Public condemnation of Trpe D. for driving like a maniacal imbecile under the influence of alcohol!`. No, there is none of that, there is only a mass fear of an undefined, alleged or totally invented danger. Them Hobgoblins & the menace.

All of the above-mentioned dangers are infinitely less prevalent in public discourse than phantom threats. Talk about Syria, Russia, and other crap far outweighs talk about some real danger that the interlocutors will likely suffer from at some point in the near or distant future. Or that they will bury someone close to them because of it...It's funny to me that I'm saying all of this, something that should be Captain Obvious in all its glory, especially as a person who believes that collective identity and patriotism are mental illnesses. Either I'm completely out of my mind or the majority has long since gone downhill and one no longer has a choice and has to put up with their irrational bullshit that is an obvious symptom of collective fears. There is no third option.

But it's not like that's me...

(Roger Mortis, 128)