Invoking 'Fear' Studies

Abstract

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) brings out the best and worst in human beings. --Dozier (1998, p. 13) The most central spiritual task of our time is working with [p. viii].... 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) afraid, the 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 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 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 is today. Race, class, sex, or AIDS as public educational topics have been plagued with a similar 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 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 (2004), and a planned conference Climate of / Commitment to Peace (2006). One way or another, for good or for worse (e.g., the tv show Fear Factor), and how to best manage it is getting due attention lately. …

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