Structural Fear and the Ways to Resist It

Abstract

The article approaches the concept of structural violence by elaborating on the idea of fear as an indicator of social or individual self-destruction. It argues that learning to read fear is an important skill for individuation and, therefore, a part of resistance to oppressive practices. Based on Tolstoy’s political thought, the article draws attention to honesty, gratefulness, love, trust, creative act and responsibility as essential conditions for developing sensibility to read fear and the social structures. Likewise, the article looks at several popular series and literary pieces in each other’s context as an existing intellectual or even social discourse with a special emphasis on the science fiction and fantasy genres in the context of spiritual anti-hierarchical thought. A distinction is made between organic fear –a natural emotion with a function of developing self-recognitio– and structural fear –a tool for manipulation and control over individuals employed by social institutions. The natural character of the emotion, in other words, the experience of fear common to every person, makes it a convenient mechanism of control over the Other. The article uses the findings to support the qualitative turn in the social studies and particularly the tendency towards the holistic or ecological approach to data selection and data interpretation.