What Scares Me Most
Halloween is the perfect time of year to reflect on what scares you most. So, today’s post is all about what keeps me up at night. Can you guess what it is?
Haunted antique porcelain dolls with googly eyes that move in opposite directions and feet that skitter across hardwood floors in the middle of the night, and Chucky, creep me out. Quicksand scares me too, though only to a certain extent, because the likelihood I’ll encounter quicksand during this lifetime is next to nil (Hey, nothing is 100% impossible, right?). Venomous snakes and spiders are also creepy, especially when they’re jumbo-sized and move erratically in hordes. And I could do without legends of the Chupacabra coming to life…
Other than that, the only things that really scare me, petrify me, and seriously keep me up at night, are things that exist in the real world right now, every day, everywhere: Poverty, hunger, homelessness, and what drives all those things, illiteracy. Why? Well, historically speaking, higher illiteracy rates are a sign of higher poverty rates. And what always comes with higher poverty rates? Hunger and homelessness. And what happens when more and more people become hungry and unhoused, desperate? Higher rates of crime, violence, and eventually, war. And I honestly can’t think of anything that’s scarier than war.
But let’s start with illiteracy. Why is that so scary?
Imagine being given employment documents, loan agreements, or going to any government office to get a passport or license or permit of some sort and not being able to read. Your illiteracy could lead to a serious lack of autonomy or privacy and fairness at work, as well as lower wages or stagnant wages, etc. It could lead you to sign loans that should be criminal, and sometimes are. Remember balloon loans and everything else associated with The Great Recession of 2008?
Overall, illiteracy limits your capacity to understand and operate within the world in which you live, which seriously limits your economic opportunities and what you’re capable of doing in life. Why do you think oppressive governments burn books and close schools to segments of the population that they want to control, like slaves, underclass workers, and women? They know that an illiterate person is easier to control and exploit.
Imagine an agent banging on your door, claiming to have a warrant for your arrest that you cannot read or understand. You weren’t aware of your alleged infraction, but this agent is telling you that you have committed some sort of crime. Who do you believe and what do you believe in such a situation, especially if they’re being violent, without documented evidence that you can read and understand? What do you do as someone who wants to be law-abiding yet is illiterate and scared?
Imagine being in a place where you don’t speak the language but need to navigate a government office for employment-related documents or residency documents as you learn their language and assimilate. How do you know what and who to trust and what to sign and which documents are necessary and or unnecessary or irrelevant to you? How do you navigate and exist in this world?
Illiteracy is always a hindrance, and will always be a personal choice for a select few. However, it becomes downright terrifying when widespread illiteracy is being orchestrated by governments and institutions run by a select few individuals who run a society. There are so many history books that illustrate this. This is not a new concept by any means.
Do you think it’s a coincidence that there is more of an organized drive to demonize public schools and ban books and privatize education these days? Or to defund public schools and libraries and institutions, or schools that don’t adhere to an agenda that ostracizes large segments of the population from their halls?
I can’t think of anything scarier than a population of people who don’t know how to read because people who don’t know how to read are inevitably exploited by those who want to control them, especially if those in control are instigating widespread illiteracy campaigns. And the only type of people who want to control other people on such a large scale are sociopaths or psychopaths. (Side note: Serial killers are usually either sociopaths or psychopaths.) What’s scarier than a bunch of sociopaths and psychopaths running things and what people are expected to do or able to do? Especially when those people being controlled and exploited find out what’s happening (which always happens too late), and don’t want to be controlled or exploited anymore.
There has never been a time in human history when hungry people, starving people, don’t get desperate eventually. And what do desperate people do? Anything it takes to survive, that’s what. Sure, we understand these narratives as inspirational long after the fact. But make no mistake, widespread illiteracy, which leads to widespread poverty and hunger and desperation, leads to nothing but sheer terror and horror in the end, for everyone.
Happy Halloween, I guess?
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