Insecurity

1 he hid his insecurity lack of confidence, self-doubt, diffidence, unassertiveness, timidity, uncertainty, nervousness, inhibition; anxiety, worry, unease.
2 the insecurity of our situation vulnerability, defenselessness, peril, danger; instability, fragility, frailty, shakiness, unreliability.

The trickster stinker brother of impoverishment and failure, insecurity is a national pastime for the shadow side of life. Perhaps this squirming trilogy is just that, a type of sport of absence.

Who are all these insecure brothers and sisters? What are they insecure about anyhow?

A close relative says. "Its the state of all young women."

Others questioned similarly stated:

"Its a product of our society."

"We compare ourselves to images fed to us by the media, and what the media feeds people becomes a part of pop culture."

Someone else paraphrased a Buddhist lama who said something like, "Americans suffer from insecurity, beating ourselves up. Why do we do that?"

The War on Terror seems to be replete with insecurity. We are encouraged to be insecure. Would you agree? Insecurity comes with its own special hormone infusing emotion, fear. I relate this to the definition of insecurity that is connected with vulnerability. Many are suspended in a state of vulnerability with great attention placed on where an attack could come from.

In another sense, the War in Iraq was promoted as a relief to this sense of insecurity. The phrase used by Secretary Rumsfeld is, "better Baghdad than Boise." This is a legitimation for war in Iraq because it places the source of insecurity out there into another country. This is an important point because there is great subtlety within these types of statements that we unconsciously react to.

Painting by Francesco Clemente