Invoking 'fear' studies.

Introduction: A Little Intimate Intertext

 
   'Intertext' reminds us that between the formal texts of curriculum 
   is another kind of life, the life that mediates, announces, 
   repudiates, or cajoles curriculum formalities. This is the life 
   that lies 'in-between' explicit annunciations [and successes], and 
   in terms of potential for shaping future directions and 
   alternatives to what is presently at hand, it may be, by far, the 
   more important influence. 
 
   --Smith (2003, p. xv) 
 
   Fear brings out the best and worst in human beings. 
 
   --Dozier (1998, p. 13) 
 
   The most central spiritual task of our time is working with fear 
   [p. viii].... Fear contracts the soul. This contraction expresses 
   itself as an inability to engage with others and with the world. 
 
   --Sardello (1999, p. 3) 
 
   Our general ignorance about human sexuality 100 years ago is where 
   the current knowledge about fearuality is today. 
 
   --from the author's website (1) 
 
   Be afraid, the fear industry tells us: be very afraid. 
 
   --Spencer (1999) (2) 
 
   May we go to the places that scare us. May we lead the life of a 
   warrior. 
 
   --Chodron (2001, p. 123) 

Scared Path

My life-partner and I went to a premier showing of a small budget film by a local independent activist-filmmaker last night. I have grown to appreciate this genre, and am inspired by the integration of art and activism that the filmmaker Michael Moore (3) exemplifies, especially in his courageous blockbuster films Bowling for Columbine (2002), and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) which exposed and popularized the concept of "culture of fear" as a serious historical condition behind gun violence and war in much of the contemporary Western world crisis, especially in America. Moore's work corroborates my own research on 'fear' (e.g., Fisher, 1998, 2003, 2004, in press) and its complex culturally-mediated economic and political postmodern formations (cf. Massumi, 1993).

I am convinced that the topic fear, in whatever form, has to be put on the dialogical table of our current educational and political public agenda (universality implied). This is not likely to happen, to any significant degree, soon. In educational professional circles (K-12 on up), I have found the topic fear itself (and fearless (4)) seems to scare people, and at least it turns them off and they withdraw from serious dialogue, usually changing the topic completely or trivializing the topic to some particular individual fear(s) or joke(s) about how silly "all this fear" is today. Race, class, sex, or AIDS as public educational topics have been plagued with a similar problem of denial (on suppression of humanity's "fear problem" see Overstreet, 1951/70 and Rowe, 1990). There is not one systematic researcher in educational circles today who is publishing (ongoing) on the topic of fear with a critical interdisciplinary lens. This essay is a first for our field, albeit, building on some significant contributions to the topic by professional educators (e.g., Gillian, 2002, 2005; Giroux, 2003; hooks, 2000; Overstreet, 1951/70; Palmer, 1998; Sardello, 1999; Wolf et al., in press).

On the upside, in the past few years I have seen intriguing cross-disciplinary dialogical "fear conferences" offering post-9/11 "fear education" at a public level for adults, showing up in post-secondary learnings sites, for example, Inver Hills Community College, Minnesota (2004) and New School University, New York (2004); while other societies or organizations have done likewise (albeit, somewhat less cross-disciplinary) for example, the international conference "Law in a Frightened Society" (2004), "Be Not Afraid: Common Christian Witness in a Culture of Fear" (2004), and a planned conference "Climate of Fear / Commitment to Peace" (2006). One way or another, for good or for worse (e.g., the tv show "Fear Factor"), fear and how to best manage it is getting due attention lately. Unlike some uses by critics, I use fear education (analogous to sex education or driver's education) with no intended negative connotation that fear is necessarily being used oppressively to motivate and control change of values, attitudes or behaviors.

In contrast to Moore, the young filmmaker (Velcrow Ripper) last night was not hunting for corrupt figure-heads to blame for terror, hatred and violence; rather, he went on a five year personal soul quest, like the sacred warrior (5) must, seeking to understand global destruction, evil, and suffering in sites like Bhopal, Cambodia's "Killing Fields," Hiroshima, NY 9/11 "Ground Zero," girls and women in Afghanistan, and Israel's "Wall"--as curriculum of spiritual enlightenment. His camera lens focused on fear, dread, despair but also hope within stories of real people managing fear and coping with loss and trauma through rare local projects of resistance under oppressive conditions. I thought his film title was intriguing: Scared Sacred (6) (promo line: Unwrap the Darkness, Reveal the Light). He narrated the film himself, with a most humble attitude throughout, even while he was being shot at or his shoes, camera, and other belongings were stolen leaving him at the mercy of other's good will. His basic message was that one has to go into the sacred Dark and face the demons, crack open the guarded heart, and through crisis--eventually, comes the Light, inspiration, and acts of compassion.