And admitting what he’s suppressed for a long time
That he’s been living in the grip of fear
It used to be war in a far corner of earth
Albeit brought into our living rooms as was said
But now it’s in our coastlines our forests our neighborhoods
From Santiago Teheran Hong Kong
To the bleached coral of The Great Barrier Reef
The armed police brandishing their arms
The assembled multitude at the bidding of The Leader
Chanting Bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit

He had ducked and covered during the Cold War
In the shelter of the tiny desk
His fear of airplanes exposing the falseness of his hope
He had sampled the powerful psychotropics
But there must have been some problem with the dosage
His festive vacation a trip into terror
He had watched as his truck burned
He had listened when he was told he’d lost his job
Because of some defect in his character
He had gone through the windshield in a single-vehicle crash

The past is prologue some wise guy opined
And repeated insults to body brain and spirit
Had prepared him to expect catastrophe
An expectation he nourished and refused to acknowledge
Some other philosopher asserted that courage
Was to be found not in the absence of fear
But in the mastery of it
Yet another had claimed cowardice the only sin
Now he knew who he was or what
A shock of recognition and a feast of self-reproach

Because it hurts and people don’t know this
It hurts to perform the contortions required
For self-examination self-speculation
And he carries out the performance
Doubting and believing that he is thus obliged
The more tortuous in that he also believes
It wrong to examine oneself
The campaigners against cowardice also
Prosecuting a war against narcissism
Examining fear though not the cause of fear

And lacking moreover the intelligence
To grasp the decentered subject
And clinging instead to the Cartesian ghost
Even while subjecting the brain
To ever more extreme assaults
The drugs chemistry exhibitionism and excess
Not forgetting self-praise the kiss of death
World’s Most Successful Drunk Driver
Longest Duration for a Single Feedback Guitar Note
Most Egregious Act of Self-regard

And so to the cause
If one’s little life is the most important thing
Then paralyzing fear makes perfect sense
Forget that nonsense about fearing the unknown
We fear we humans what we know
We know our ill deeds our impure thoughts
We know the thick catalogue of fractional truths
We know the seductions of prejudice and superstition
We know the compulsions of greed and lust
And that Mad Captain Death fast or slow will never relent