Anxiety is power.
It always has been.
Fear and uncertainty
cloud the operations
of reason.
Fear and uncertainty
cripple the lineaments
of sympathy.
Fear and uncertainty
induce shame,
which in turn
induces an inward hatred
that spews outward
in anger and hate.
The brain is wired
in its core
to flood consciousness
with chemical agitation
in the presence of threat,
real or imagined.
The ability to harness
and direct these drives
is a royal road
to power over others,
who in their diminished state,
cannot discern the damage
being inflicted upon them
with their own assistance,
their unknowing connivance.
This is an age
of hyper-anxiety:
some of it harnessed
to pernicious effect;
but much of it
now coursing wildly
with no direction,
beyond all sense,
all sympathy,
into a rageful darkness.
©2016 by Chris Floyd