‘Been thinking about UK Government’s Propaganda … oops, Public Information and Ministerial broadcasts recently. No! It is HMG Propaganda, which appears at times to be out and out brainwashing – ie the concept that our minds  can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. It reduces our ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into our minds, as well as, ultimately changing our attitudes, values and belief-systems. Brainwashing? Yes! It is brainwashing.

But more frightening is comparing FEARISM and FEARISTS with Terrorism and Terrorists. It’s really got me thinking, although I could be wrong, of course, because I’m not a politician. They know that a terrorist campaign has three main goals: 1 The Body Count. 2 Disrupting normal day-to-day social behaviour. 3 Spreading Fear, and then more-and-more fear, in society.

Body Count? HMG’s C19 obsession is a different kind of ‘body count’, led by the BBC – which highlights the number of C19 daily cases and especially the number of daily deaths. Macabre? Surely not! Macabre -‘disturbing because concerned with or causing a fear of death.’ Yes! Macabre.

Societal disruption? I don’t think we need add much more under this heading.

Spreading Fear? Again, I’m not a politician or a medical officer or scientist, so maybe I’ve got that one wrong. It’s just information, of course. Silly me. HMG’s would never spread fear among its citizens. Next year, by the way, will be the 20th anniversary of when Saddaam Hussein could launch biological and chemical weapons within 45 minutes of receiving orders. Those famous W.M.D’s or Weapons of Mass Destruction.

By today we have our very own home-grown W.M.D’s – now called W.D.M’s , used to WILFULLY DECEIVE the MASSES about C19.

Such weapons, of course, would never be used against our children. No ‘Grown-up’ would put them through anything like that.

Get real. Our home grown Fearists are not even on the same scale as Terrorists. What a ridiculous thought. The latter want to do their utmost to deny us safe space, wherever we may want to wander. They want to reduce the places in which we can move and act freely. And above all, a terrorist wants us to be obsessed with our ‘bodies’ and the daily danger to those bodies.

It’s an exaggeration to say thatGet real. Our home grown Fearists are not even on the same scale as Terrorists. What a ridiculous thought. The latter want to do their utmost to deny us safe space, wherever we may want to wander. They want to reduce the places in which we can move and act freely. And above all, a terrorist wants us to be obsessed with our ‘bodies’ and the daily danger to those bodies.

It’s just me thinking dark thoughts! After all, it is the shortest day. Too much darkness. I’m just not thinking clearly. FEARISM. H.M.G’s FEARISTS. Really?

Fear is an eminently timely topic … fear today has become something like a test: be afraid, so you can prove that you are on the right side. Insulate yourself with fear … Not only does fear isolate a person from others, but it raises that person out of time. Fear is always of the moment, the present. It casts a person back into nature (for) fear exists only in the present tense. And what else is there that has no consciousness of the past of the future? The body. In the course of being afraid the body will be more important than anything else … in a state of fear, a person, more than anything else, reacts within the body’s corporeality …

From ‘Dostoevsky Reads Hegel in Siberia And Bursts Into Tears’ (A collection of essays on contemporary culture) by Laszlo F. Foldenyi 2020.

Hungarian critic, essayist and art theorist. Professor and Chair in the Theory of Art, University of Theatre, Film and Television, Budapest. He is also a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature. 

One of the books I have on the go at the moment – combining morning contemplations or musings of a shamanic and philosophical nature. More to come from Laszlo