"He says the Beastie came out of the dark."
"Then he couldn’t see it!"
"He still says he saw the beastie."
"He was dreaming!"
"He says he saw the beastie, and will it come back tonight?"
"But there isn’t a Beastie!!"
Jack seized the conch.
"Ralphs right of course. There isn’t a snake-thing . . .but if there was we’d hunt it and kill it."
"But I tell you there isn’t a beast!"
from Lord of the Flies
Fear: the biological response when faced with a known or unknown threat. It can be mild anxiety with starting a new job. Or very high tension when facing something like your first year of college, living on your own. It happens often when we find something outside of our experience, and are thus unable to predict possible threats. The unknown, or unseen threat causes the body to tune to a heightened awareness. The heart rate speeds up, adrenaline kicks in, your senses become more attune to your surroundings, noticing sounds and movement. The body is preparing for a possible danger so that it can respond quickly if it becomes necessary to fight or to run. Fear is a good and necessary thing.
It can also be a destructive thing. A state of fear endured over a long period without the threat revealing itself can be paralyzing. In Watership Down, the rabbits describe this condition as "going Tharn." When a rabbit goes Tharn, he is simply unable to move, and cannot even run when the predator nears. Fear can also quickly turn to anger. If you’ve ever had yourself escape a near collision on the highway because the @#$%& in the lane next to you didn’t bother to &@#$ing signal or check his $!!%ing blind spot you know the fury this provokes. Fear’s mutation into rage can cause people to behave impulsively and violently against imagined foes. Fear can be used to manipulate, a phenomenon we all know well. Whether it’s advertisements for home security systems, or political rhetoric against the Enemy Du Jour, a public in fear can be easily moved to accept any panacea that promises to deliver them from danger.
But tonight is the night to embrace fear. Time to become fearful things ourselves, or make a pretend spooky house. And by embracing fear, we free ourselves from fear. If you are a lucky person who lives in a child-friendly neighborhood, this is the night that our children are allowed to wander out after dark, go up to strange people’s houses and accept candy from them. Tonight there is nothing to be afraid of, because we are laughing at fear, we are having fun with fear. And death, that great unknown, that taboo subject spoken of in whispers, tonight Death is everywhere. Grim reapers, serial killers, grinning, laughing skulls, decay and dismemberment, Hooray!
So women, I call on you to go into your closest trick-or-treat neighborhood and enjoy the simple pleasure of walking outside at night without fear of being assaulted. Citizens I call on you to walk out tonight, breathe the fall air, and remember that the world doesn’t revolve around what people are doing and saying in Washington. Remember that most of the world is filled with people like your neighbors, who are usually happy to lend an egg or a cup of sugar, or help you jump-start your battery on a cold morning. Humans, I call on you to reflect that death is a biological necessity. Without death there could be no new life, no natural selection, no evolution, and no birth. Know that our deaths will make room for new and beautiful life, and isn’t that a price worth paying? And to quote my beloved Dumbledore "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."
We’ve been in a cloud of fear for the last 7 years. Tonight, lets let that fear lift off of our shoulders, and feel the freedom that brings. Happy Halloween.
Don’t you ever laugh when a hearse goes by
For you may be the next to die
The put you in a big black box
And cover you up with dirt and rocks
And all goes well for about a week
And then your coffin begins to leak
The worms crawl in, the Worms crawl out
They eat your guts and spit them out
They eat your eyes, they eat your nose
They eat the jelly between your toes.
Your liver turns a nasty green
And pus pours out like whipping cream
You spread it on a piece of bread
And that’s what you eat when you are dead!