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FiftyFive ~ # 54
A question I saw written down the other day was, "...what is the fear of being laughed at a fear of?" For most of us it is surely the fear of our adolescent view of our sense of self being ridiculed and dented - or even exposed, ie the self image is revealed as nothing but a daft notion of the self - the bubble is burst. And of course it is that which we eventually grow out of. Or do we; for it occurs to me too that in being beyond reacting to being laughed at (and minding) are we not in danger of reaching a state of complacency, where we are just too old (or arrogant; or stupid) to care? Indeed the other questions that arise are, "...what would have to happen for someone to grow out of the fear of being laughed at?" And indeed, "...is it possible to grow out of that fear?" which circles all the way around to, "...what is the fear of being laughed at a fear of?" Adam Phillips says, "Laughing at someone is - like all real pleasure - a stolen pleasure. But when we laugh at someone they feel stolen from." Though I suppose the level of laughter at us isn't the real test of our fear, that lies in the cause of the laughter. Consider the cause, from mild teasing through to humiliation, which must account for the degree of reaction. A huge guffaw could be from little more than a cheeky smile of an insult, while a tiny smiled hmmm or even a single raised eyebrow could account for a holocaust of life being stolen. Interesting is how I would describe it, without having to comment much beyond saying, I was only saying - thinking out loud... circumlocution of the soul.
That said I found an idea that links this to the Icarus effect the other day, "Life is impoverished, " wrote Freud in 1915, "it loses in interest, when the highest stake in the game of living, life itself, may not be risked." When Daedalus urged Icarus to fly the middle way - not too high or too low, he had made life itself the price and the prize. Once he had found his wings, Icarus prized flying so highly that he took the risk. I am going to let this one float too but it will drop into sense at some time, to become real... my favourite song by Capercaillie is Tiocfaidh Leat Fanacht but I couldn't find it on Youtube - though if you buy it on iTunes, turn the lights down, light a candle and sip a glass of very nice wine - you will find the effect intoxicating. However, you could always listen to this instead. Nostalgia is a return to a place that never existed in the first place - but och, these are pictures of a Scotland I recognise (even if they are a pastoral representation)and it wis aye there... an' a' the coos look like that... and its all circumlocution, is it not - are you laughing at me?