Are You Sweating Bullets Yet?

Think this guy is worried about the same things you are?

What is up with Fear?

I can’t help but wonder how everyone seems to be afraid of everything right now. Swine flu. The recession. Their job. Technology. Bugs. Bugs Bunny. Leaving the stove on. Locking the door. Tsunamis. Hurricanes. Natural disasters, really. Thieves. Traveling. Spending money. Doctors. Lawyers. Journalists. Politicians. Americans. Arabs. Planes. Elevators. Food poisoning. Mercury poisoning. Salmonella poisoning. Bad lettuce. Bad vegetables. Bad grammar. Bad posture. Baldness. Fat-ness. Driving. Parking. Wrinkles. Self-consciousness. Self-confidence.

I could go on forever, but can we? I mean, how much more can we take? I’ve been reading The Lost Symbol recently and No, it’s not a true story NOTE: for everyone offended by The DaVinci Code, that book doesn’t make people not believe. They just don’t believe anymore for separate reasons. One brilliant thing that book does (because it’s definitely not the writing) is that is presupposes this notion that Ancient peoples and cultures had it all right. At least, that’s the premise… the search for Ancient Wisdom.
If that were the case, have we been continuously sliding down and ever-steepening slope since then? We’re so terrified of every little thing nowadays. Some people even think it’s wise to wait for sex until marriage.
NOTE 2: In my opinion, you never want to be with anyone who takes sex too seriously. They could never get over a bad experience in bed. It would be like trying to console Dimaggio after game #57.
The latest recession has thrown things into a tail-spin, but not because it’s actually done anything. It’s a very convenient thing for people to be able to blame the economy (as if economy was the one who knocked up your sister, too) considering that we create the economy. Even people like myself, who are currently 22 years-old with no permanent prospects, have started freaking out about their future when they haven’t lost anything. Companies are firing people pre-emptively, just out of the worry that they may lose money at some point. It’s made us terrified of going into work, or even taking a job.
Technology is what grabs me. It’s phrased as if it is another category of business, even. I’ve heard people at job markets answer the question, “What do you do?” with, “Oh, I’m in the technology business.”
Yea, no shit. My dog’s in the technology business. Everyone’s in the technology business. It just means you’re getting better – more advanced.
The worst thing I can hear is people telling me that some markets are obsolete. They’re shrinking, they say, because of technology. “Technology is ruining the media industry,” they say. “Media is a shrinking market.”
Yes, it’s true that in a time of Boca Raton-style penny pinching you will see less and less money spent on advertising – especially in the print and radio side. Still, it always entertains me to hear people say, “Television is dead. The media is dead. It’s all internet now.”
Yea, so the Internet isn’t media? These are same people who don’t think cell phones are telephones.

You want a real lesson. Nut-up and put your chocolate where your box is. Only you knows what you really know. Stop being afraid of something just because some guy told you you should be. The only people who tell you you can’t do something are really just trying to say that they can’t do it.

Want an example? I took a screenwriting course in university last year, your typical kind of course like that. I re-wrote Adam and Eve, time-warping the characters into modern day. “Not creative,” the teacher said. “Can’t re-create. No storyline. You can’t take chances with a script.”
Who was my teacher? I have no idea, honestly. Her imdb.com page lists one movie – some short film about coneheads trying to separate from their colony. Sounds great, but why would I need to take serious advice from someone who has no success? Only you can know what’s good and what’s not good. P.S., she didn’t create coneheads, so I could probably judge her creativity, as well.
You can’t take chances?
Try telling Quentin Tarantino that, and he’d still be working in that video store in Glendale.