I had a mini-epiphany the other day. It's really actually not anything new, but I guess the full force of it hit me the other day and it's kind of a unifying theory. I like unifying theories.

It seems to me like a dominant theme in just about every current in society right now that worries me is fear. Well, fear and fear-mongering. It permeates everything from Paradise Valley's building a park but not calling it a park because they're afraid that would attract homeless people, to the backlash in Canada against gay marriage, to the War on Terrorism(TM), to gated communities.

And I know why it is, too. When you convince people to be afraid of something, you can mobilize them against it. You can control them.

Yeah, I know. Blinding Flash of the Obvious. But how do you counter fear? What's the antidote?

And for g-dsakes, I've been puzzling over this one for years, why are conservative Christians afraid of gay people? And make no mistake (sorry, Dubya, had to steal that phrase back). They are. Very. There's more to it than a simple moral objection or concerns about scripture. I mean, there are various scriptures that forbid eating pork, getting a divorce, wearing a red dress in church, etc., etc., etc. We don't hear much about that stuff.

What are they afraid of?

I refuse to be afraid. I refuse to be afraid of Bush, of the fearmongers, of The Corporation in toto that wants to turn us into mindless worker-drones and consumer units. I refuse to fear even fear itself.

Now I've just got to work on fear of failure. Hrmph.