The balls of fear and suduko
Since the soccer, everything seems to have calmed down here. I’m not really sure what I’ve been doing to occupy myself, to be honest. Oh yes! Going through another Suduko phase: They have these Killer Samurais in the paper once a week.
Also finally found a “western” grocery shop in my area and managed to gather enough ingredients to make a bolognaise (yes, it’s taken me a month and a half). So, eating bolognaise, watching reruns of That Seventies Show and doing Suduko.
Kinda sounds like my life back in South Africa?
My new Houellebecq has arrived, but I’m keeping it for a “rainy” day – it is my birthday present after all, which is next Wednesday (note product placement).
Still thinking about this notion of “fear” since reading the Financial Times over the weekend. Everything, but everything was about Islam, extremists, terrorists or the petrol price. If this fear is the new “communism” of the American 1960s, it certainly seems to have us by the balls.
Yet, from beyond the frontier, I’m living peacefully in the midst of it, oblivious of the rest of the world’s angst unless I pick up an international paper.
Also, no paper seems to be reporting that if it weren’t for the fuel money, there would be no Middle East. Although they’re trying to diversify their income because reserves are starting to run out, apparently, there’s still nothing that can stand on it’s own two legs. A consumer boycott could only last so long. So then, who has who by the balls? It’s like they’re both holding each other’s balls but neither is squeezing cos they’ll both be fucked.
We’ve been talking about it in the office too. The conversation’s not new: September 11 was orchestrated, neo-conservatism is the real evil and America can’t function without fear, without an other.
But different to discussions I've had before, because we are all living behind the curtain of fear now, we are alienated from the hype. So we’ve really seen how very fragile and, well, er, fuelled it is. The distance gives us new clarity on the hyperreality of mass-media: The skeptic observer – the man who stirs the brain (beer) vat.
So the talk becomes the "fear" itself. How it is created, how it works, what it works for and the power of fear - and, of course, when the boss walks past, how we can use this to make adverts? But, at the same time, we can't deny that as expats we all still do have a grain of that fear within us. Despite us being very aware of it as a simulacrum, it is still a signifier to us. We are on the frontier, but what if that wall comes down and we can't go back?
Another friend said that fear is physical and the analysis can’t dispel it, only reinforces it.
But then what is this weird thing called “fear” that has all of us squeezing our own balls?
Also finally found a “western” grocery shop in my area and managed to gather enough ingredients to make a bolognaise (yes, it’s taken me a month and a half). So, eating bolognaise, watching reruns of That Seventies Show and doing Suduko.
Kinda sounds like my life back in South Africa?
My new Houellebecq has arrived, but I’m keeping it for a “rainy” day – it is my birthday present after all, which is next Wednesday (note product placement).
Still thinking about this notion of “fear” since reading the Financial Times over the weekend. Everything, but everything was about Islam, extremists, terrorists or the petrol price. If this fear is the new “communism” of the American 1960s, it certainly seems to have us by the balls.
Yet, from beyond the frontier, I’m living peacefully in the midst of it, oblivious of the rest of the world’s angst unless I pick up an international paper.
Also, no paper seems to be reporting that if it weren’t for the fuel money, there would be no Middle East. Although they’re trying to diversify their income because reserves are starting to run out, apparently, there’s still nothing that can stand on it’s own two legs. A consumer boycott could only last so long. So then, who has who by the balls? It’s like they’re both holding each other’s balls but neither is squeezing cos they’ll both be fucked.
We’ve been talking about it in the office too. The conversation’s not new: September 11 was orchestrated, neo-conservatism is the real evil and America can’t function without fear, without an other.
But different to discussions I've had before, because we are all living behind the curtain of fear now, we are alienated from the hype. So we’ve really seen how very fragile and, well, er, fuelled it is. The distance gives us new clarity on the hyperreality of mass-media: The skeptic observer – the man who stirs the brain (beer) vat.
So the talk becomes the "fear" itself. How it is created, how it works, what it works for and the power of fear - and, of course, when the boss walks past, how we can use this to make adverts? But, at the same time, we can't deny that as expats we all still do have a grain of that fear within us. Despite us being very aware of it as a simulacrum, it is still a signifier to us. We are on the frontier, but what if that wall comes down and we can't go back?
Another friend said that fear is physical and the analysis can’t dispel it, only reinforces it.
But then what is this weird thing called “fear” that has all of us squeezing our own balls?
posted by Nadine at 3:56 PM
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