{"id":1281,"date":"2014-01-14T16:24:34","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T21:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2014-01-14T16:27:35","modified_gmt":"2014-01-14T21:27:35","slug":"poem-fearmongers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/14\/poem-fearmongers\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Fearmongers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>Fearmongers<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Fear-mongers rein upon US<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: large;\">And weave so much dread<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: large;\">Of what dismay due<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: large;\">We simply back into<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: large;\">A dark future<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: large;\">Like bit players<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: large;\">In a bad horror film<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: large;\">Where more than budgets are slashed<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: large;\">And we feign surprise<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This short poem addresses the pervasive human experience of fear.\u00a0 Though the fear addressed in this poem relates to the daily weave of fear, almost like background noise, which leads to learned helplessness in our body politic.\u00a0 Everyone is familiar with the classic horror movie behavior of backing into a dark, dangerous situation, with the audience calling out to pay attention to the completely predictable eventuality of being slashed in some way.\u00a0 This irrational cinematic behavior provides the image for this poem.\u00a0 Further, the inevitable slashing is juxtaposed with feigned surprise.\u00a0 This feigned surprise is the logical outcome of being cowed into fear so pervasively that obvious scary outcomes coming our way need to be denied to rationalize our feelings of helplessness.\u00a0 Perhaps the least surprise should be expected around the persistent reality that fearful behaviors lead to fearful outcomes.\u00a0 Fearful means are inextricably linked to fearful ends, just like any other means and ends are tied together.\u00a0 Ultimately, fear brings out the worst in us.\u00a0 Endemic fear immobilizes us as a well-functioning society.\u00a0 A politics of fearmongering, and a society awash in fear, has little grounds to expect to flourish.\u00a0 May we have the courage to resist and challenge fearmongering.\u00a0 May we openly and honestly address the inherent scary outcomes within our body politic, so that reasonable and sustainable outcomes can be nurtured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fearmongers Fear-mongers rein upon US And weave so much dread Of what dismay due We simply back into A dark future Like bit players In a bad horror film Where more than budgets are slashed And we feign surprise This &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/14\/poem-fearmongers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[145,198,428,462,635,410,579,475,658,94,215,601,53,290,264,515],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-budgets","tag-courage","tag-experience","tag-fear","tag-future","tag-helplessness","tag-image","tag-logic","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-politics","tag-reality","tag-short-poems","tag-society","tag-surprises","tag-sustainable"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>POEM: Fearmongers | Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun&#039;s Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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