Fear and control

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Neverending Story. Have you seen it? The plot concerns a young hero named Atreyu, who is questing to save his magical world of Fantasia from the ravages of an all consuming storm known as The Nothing. Despite his best efforts, Atreyu cannot find a means to fight the Nothing, despite having been told he must go "beyond the boundaries of Fantasia." As the Nothing closes in around him, Atreyu encounters an enormous wolf-like monster, G'mork:

Still scares me...

G'mork: If you come any closer, I will rip you to shreds.
Atreyu: Who are you?
G'mork: I am G'mork. And you, whoever you are, can have the honor of being my last victim.
Atreyu: I will not die easily. I am a warrior!
G'mork: Ha! Brave warrior, then fight the Nothing.
Atreyu: But I can't! I can't get beyond the boundaries of Fantasia!
[G'mork laughs and Atreyu gets a little angry]
Atreyu: What's so funny about that?
G'mork: Fantasia has no boundaries.
Atreyu: That's not true! You're lying.
G'mork: Foolish boy. Don't you know anything about Fantasia? It's the world of human fantasy. Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries.
Atreyu: But why is Fantasia dying, then?
G'mork: Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So the Nothing grows stronger.
Atreyu: What is the Nothing?
G'mork: It's the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it.
Atreyu: But why?
G'mork: Because people who have no hopes are easy to control; and whoever has the control has the power!

We've talked about fear a little in the past, but rewatching this scene recently got me thinking more about the relationship between fear, hopes, dreams & imagination, and the quality of our lives.

Look at any of the world's major issues and I bet I can trace its origins back to fear. Greed and violence are easy targets to track back to fear. Less obvious is rampant dissociation and depression. Richard Louv makes this point very well in his book Last Child in the Woods - we are bombarded with gloom and doom scenarios about global warming, environmental degradation, economic catastrophe, and the decline of western civilization, but often at arms length (via television, internet, classrooms, etc.) and without much hope. In this way, we risk triggering a very basic fear-coping mechanism: dissociation and disengagement. Just look at recent polls in England that indicate an alarming increase in apathy about global warming.

Of course, a little fear is normal - even healthy. If our ancestors hadn't jumped when they saw a snake in the grass we wouldn't be here today. The key is to not let it control you. Too much fear kills imagination, chokes hope, and destroys dreams. Remember what Yoda says - fear leads to the Dark Side.

Listen to me you should, even though a sock puppet am I...

Hm... that's two awesome 80's movies referenced in this post. Let's see if we can go for the trifecta...

There are plenty of real life G'morks out there to help you surrender to fear. Unfortunately they are less obviously monstrous than G'mork, but their motives are the same - they want you docile and easily manipulated so they can control you. Vote this way or donate to this political group, otherwise the Nutcase Republicans/Godless Liberals will "take over" and Declare holy war on the world and kill science/Invite the terrorists over for tea and kill God. Take this statin or you'll DIE. Buy this exercise contraption or you'll BE UGLY.

There's a quote: Fear is the mind-killer. (that's from Dune... but the movie sucked... guess we need to keep trying for that trifecta)

I know it often doesn't seem this way, but fear is weak. It's a paper tiger. All you need to do is cultivate your imagination. Take time out of the day to get involved with a good story. Better, daydream a little. Let your creativity run wild. It's trainable, just like everything else, but you have to use it.

The next step? Play. Next time you think you need to hop on the treadmill, head outside to the nearest playground and spend some time jumping around. Remember what it's like to experience physical joy. Take some risks - revel in overcoming obstacles and dust yourself off if you fall - you are stronger than you think.

You will begin to realize that this world isn't so scary, our problems are not insurmountable, and there is plenty of time to do what you want to do. You will easily spot G'morks and be very hard to control. In short, you'll be alive. And that's a great thing.

You know what else is great? Unicorns. Like the ones in Legend:

This picture is best viewed while blasting Tangerine Dream

BAM. Trifecta complete. Have a nice day.