Not all furry monsters are baddies
Do you remember as a child being afraid of monsters under the bed? Me too. It was scary.
If you had reasonably thoughtful and loving parents, you might remember this as only a temporary phase because sooner rather than later you would come to believe your parents’ reassurance that there was nothing there. A little patience and persistence and the night-time ritual of inspecting under the bed, looking behind the curtains and keeping any potential monsters at bay via a dim night-light would surely convince you all was right with your world.
The more modern-day terminology is “night terrors” which sounds quite dramatic to me but is probably more understanding of what a little person may be actually feeling during that stage of development than the rather cuddly definition of a monster under the bed.
Whatever you call it, at least we know much more about it than we used to. Good enough adults want the children in our care to be protected and loved and set on the right path for as happy-as-can-be adult life as possible. (You’ll notice I’m not making any promises here, just pointing out that that’s the general aim.)
But what about what comes later? When you’re officially the grown up and not able to find the reassurance of older adults without feeling a bit silly. I can hear my own stern inner voice telling me to “get a grip” – I had a fiercer upbringing than maybe I would recommend – but not all of us are fully in tune with our inner world. What happens then and who’s there to support them?
Once upon a time, friends and family would be there to tell us there weren’t that many monsters to worry about and, those that were, were probably busy bothering someone else. Now, sadly, that’s not so much the case. Now it feels sometimes as though the monsters are in charge.
I was proud of considering using monsters as my new year topic when I thought of it some time early November. No-one else was writing about it and I knew I was ahead of the curve. I should have done it sooner. This year’s new year messages are full of similar sounding topics, so it’ll be hard to make mine different. Never mind, here goes.
I remember learning about the dilemma of US advertisers in the decade or so after World War II when Americans had managed to achieve all their dreams of having the latest of everything, the greatest homes, cars, white goods etc. etc. In other words, the best lives ever. What, the advertisers wondered, could they do once they had achieved their targeted audience had everything they wanted. Whatever next after The Power of Dreams had come true?
Advertisers being what they are – intelligent, determined and persuasive – it didn’t take them that long to come up with an answer. They thought for a bit, scratched their heads and then came the lightbulb moment. Drum roll … congratulations all round … here we have it … The Power of Nightmares.
What’s more powerful than dreams? You’re right. Nightmares. So, according to the theory (there’s a documentary about it somewhere) a good way of controlling the populace is by showing them that, if they’re not careful, life could be much, much worse. Think about it. It’s very effective.
Let’s say you have a fantastic new and beautiful smart car. The interiors have that delicious smell of leather (if you’re lucky, shiny other stuff if it’s not quite that pricy) and it drives like a dream (!). You’re sublimely satisfied.
And then, slowly slowly, you start to worry. What if someone knocks into it, or you have a prang, or what’s that strange sound you hadn’t heard before when the engine heats up? If you think about it, the concerns have a tendency to last longer than the initial delight.
And that’s why The Power of Nightmares is such a brilliant idea. It’s probably why, instead of celebrating the end of a terrible world war, we found ourselves being terrified by the prospect of another. And so along came the Cold War and the nightmare thought of where it might lead. It may be a cynical thought – and lots of people had it – but what if that was contrived to keep us all in our place? Certainly, it kept the nuclear button option at bay, but it also kept us within what seemed like a straitjacket of terror.
We had a brief time of respite with the collapse of communism and the opening up of the former communist states with hope for love and riches appearing all around us. But that didn’t last long and look where we are now.
The leader of the Western world has just made his move on Venezuela and, we are told, is setting his sights on Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark, a European country that’s also a Nato member. Wow. Whoever expected that.
It’s not looking good and one could even argue that the monsters are no longer under the bed but sleeping comfortably and unrepentantly in our space. I find I’ve been offering up the Happy New Year phrase with some hesitancy this time around.
I’m not in a position to offer obvious cheer because I’m as confused as the next person.
However, I did gain my own form of comfort from reading what words of wisdom poet Robert Frost had to give as he reached his 80th birthday. “Life goes on”, he answered simply.
Monsters may come and go, some hidden, some very much on display but, despite their determination to wreak havoc, life goes on. May you have good days ahead.