New Danger

Barak "Black Eagle" Obama

‘Ask a Crow,’ reports Dr. Lowrie, ‘whether he would have security as now, or danger as of old, and his answer is – “danger as of old . . . there was glory in it.”’

“The inferiority of our age in such respects is an inevitable result of the fact that society is centralized and organized to such a degree that individual initiative is reduced to a minimum.” – Bertrand Russell

Boredom and frustration are the lynchpins of blue collar life. Security, safety and structure breed these things – and are to some degree responsible for the psychic degradation of Americans. As pointed out by Mr. Elvis Costello (and Louis C.K), we live in paradise; it therefore seems a paradox that there is such a lust for escapism.

There is no such ‘danger as of old’. Where is the new danger, the new glory?

In the effective system of modern culture, perhaps the new danger is in individual initiative and deviance. The new danger is social stigma, and political inexpedience – in a word: irrelevance.

Reptiles of the mind – bred in the standing water of assured opinion and norms-are the new danger.