
Petrified Forest - prostoalex
http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/fear/petrified-forest
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bluehex
I find this author's writing style very hard to digest. I'm a native speaker
and sentences like these give me impostor syndrome, making me wonder if my
literacy is lacking:

> The force of mind rooted in the soil of adversity didn’t take hold in the
> flower beds of prosperity; placed under the protective custody of the atomic
> bomb and sicklied o’er with the pale cast of money, the native hues of
> resolution lost the name of action.

> Why and wherefrom the trigger warnings, and whose innocence or interest are
> they meant to comfort, defend, and preserve?

~~~
smhost
It's just an old school style of writing. We've moved on from the elitist
styles to a more democratic one. The cool thing to do now is to use simple
sentence structures with excellent word choices, rather than trying to weave
something very complex for the sake of poetry.

~~~
Spearchucker
I'm not sure it's necessarily "old school". It strikes me as self-
aggrandising, and speaks of someone uncomfortable with their place in the
world. Much as old money asks for the toilet, and new money asks for the rest
room.

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Aloha
About 5 years ago I wondered when we all became so afraid of everything - and
while I cant believe the premise that its a master plan by unknown forces to
sell more weapons of war - it is pervasive and does seem to be media driven.

~~~
jacquesm
It goes a lot further than that. People that are afraid are not rational, it
is a lot easier to get them to agree to things that are not exactly in their
interests if you can spook them first and then promise that these little
changes to society will make them feel safer again.

~~~
Sukotto
As per the quote from Goering which I'm sure you already know, but I will
paste here for today's lucky 10,000.

\-----

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his
attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders
who bring them war and destruction.

“Why, of course, the people don’t want war,” Goering shrugged. “Why would some
poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can
get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common
people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor
for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the
leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple
matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist
dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”

“There is one difference,” I pointed out. “In a democracy the people have some
say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United
States only Congress can declare wars.”

“Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always
be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is
tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any
country.”

\-----

Gilbert, G. M. The Psychology of Dictatorship: Based on an Examination of the
Leaders of Nazi Germany. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1979. Print.

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stupidcar
I clicked around a few pages on this site, and every single one of them threw
up some fucking fixed-position popover soliciting me to buy something, listen
to something, or subscribe to something, or whatever. This trend is such a
cancer on the web.

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danielbln
It also makes me wonder, is the conversion rate on these god awful popups
really that good? I've ever entered an email address into one of these boxes,
and why would I? More often than not they shove them into your face before you
even see the page content, then again when you try to leave. It's terrible.

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pasbesoin
I almost didn't look at this, because of the title. It would be better served
by the subtitle, a subject I am very interested in:

 _Fear, says Lewis Lapham, is America’s top-selling consumer product._

