INVERSES

fear is the greatest motivator of all time. conflict born of fear is behind our every action, driving us forward like the cogs of a clock. fear is desire’s dark dress, its doppelgänger. “love and dread are brothers,” says julian of norwich. as desire is wanting and fear is not-wanting, they become inexorably linked; just as desire can be destructive (the desire for power), fear can be constructive (fear of hurting another); fear of poverty becomes desire for wealth. collective actions are not exempt from these double powers; consider this succinct and frightening sentence written by john berger: 'everywhere these days more and more people knock their heads against the fact that the future of our planet and what it will offer or deny to its inhabitants, is being decided by boards of men who control more money than all the governments in the world, who never stand for election, and whose sole criterion for every decision they take is whether or not it increases or is prone to increase profit.' but has it ever been any different? races everywhere have always been at the mercy of collective desire and collective fear, sometimes their own, sometimes others. the impulse toward order is born of fear and desire, and the impulse toward chaos is born of the same. the british psychoanalyst d.w. winnicott believed artists were people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.