Posted on 04/24/2010 6:12:33 PM PDT by ventanax5
Wafa Sultan is a Syrian-born psychiatrist who jumped to world fame on
A recurring metaphor is the ogre on the mountain, who keeps everyone below in a permanent state of fear. Everybody fears the ogre, and everybody keeps each other in adherence to the rules laid out by the ogre.
But if someone actually plucks up courage, climbs the mountain, and faces the ogre, it is all but impossible to find. It is larger at a distance and shrinks on approach, to the point of eventually nearly disappearing. The ogre depends on people to believe in it and fear it — without the belief and the fear it has no power in and of itself.
As the young, courageous man who climbs the mountain inquires (page 3): - - - - - - - - - “Who are you?” the young man asked.
“I am fear,” the ogre replied.
“Fear of what?” the young man asked.
“That depends on who you are. How each person sees me depends on how he imagines me. Some people fear illness, and they see me as disease. Others fear poverty, so they see me as poverty. Others fear authority, so they see authority in me. Some fear injustice, others fear wild beasts or storms, so that’s how I appear to them. He who fears water sees me as a torrent, he who fears war perceives me as an army, ammunition, and suchlike.”
“But why do they see you as bigger than you really are?”
“To each person I appear as big as his fear. And as long as they refuse to approach and confront me, they will never know my true size.”
(Excerpt) Read more at gatesofvienna.blogspot.com ...
Wafa ping
Bump. Worth reading at the link, and I think I’ll buy Wafa Sultan’s book too.
Bump. Worth reading at the link, and I think I’ll buy Wafa Sultan’s book too.
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