This is a country of bullies – Aleks Farrugia
If I remember well, it was Edgar Allan Poe who wrote the story of a man that, horrified by the thought of what evil lurks behind the seemingly innocuous gaze of humanity as it passes him by walking down the busy streets of the city, decides to wall himself in his house.
Not that this provides him with any sense of safety. The thought worms in his mind that, even there, behind the bricked-up doors and windows of his house, they will eventually come to get him.
In the end, it’s not humanity with all its evil that kills him but his own paranoia.
Poe had a knack for the macabre but he knew something about human psychology. He was particularly sensitive to that sense of helplessness that we sometimes experience, when we feel naked and small and fearful and it is as if the world outside is baring its teeth, ready to pounce on us.
It usually happens when we find ourselves in the midst of a situation that overwhelms us, when we’re in the tunnel and there’s no sight of the light at the end of it. Helplessness begets fear and fear is an ugly beast.
No one wants to live their life in fear. Fearfulness is the same as living in a cage. One cannot exercise one’s freedom living in fear.
We are...