There were a couple of things within this reading that I wanted to comment on. The discussion on page 7 was interesting regarding how the words used within the speeches by the previous leader of the British Conservative Party, William Hague, and the current British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, generated effects. The words created impressions of others as those who have invaded the space of the nation, threatening its existence. Immediately after reading about this, I thought of connotative words. The use of connotative words is lightly demonstrated here as David Blunkett replaced the word swamped with overwhelmed. The word swamped or overwhelmed would have worked within the speech, however, Blunkett had to replace the word due to the negative connotation of swamped versus overwhelmed.
On page 9, Ahmed states “we can see that the affectivity of hate is what makes it difficult to pin down, to locate in a body, object, or figure. This difficulty is what makes emotions such as hate work the way that they do; it is not the impossibility of hate as such, but the mode of its operation, whereby it surfaces in the world made up of other bodies.” I definitely can relate to what Ahmed is saying here about hate. Personally, whenever I feel intense anger or hate, I always expect it to be at something specific, like a specific individual or thing. If I have trouble figuring out what specifically I hate or am mad at, I notice I get unsure of my feelings and don’t know what to do with all the emotion running through me. In cases like these, my emotion often stems from something that is not specific. When I’m caught up in my emotions, however, I can’t seem to figure this out until later when I am calm and in a rational state.
In class we noted the common differentiation between fear and anxiety. Anxiety is fear without an object, fear is anxiety, directed at something specific. But Ahmed doesn't seem to agree with this, claiming instead that fear doesn't "have" an object, per se, but merely emerges in response to the passing-by of an object(124). So perhaps we could combine these ideas, and define anxiety as fear where the passing object isn't consciously acknowledged.
ReplyDeleteI also get a lot of undirected (or, in Ahmed's conception, unattached) anxiety. I'm convinced that much of it is physiological (not really of external origin) so I respond to it as such. I exercise more, eat right, do something fun etc, rather than trying to find an artificial "object" for my anxiety.
I'm apt to agree with Ahmed's observation that we don't tend to fear really terrible things that are already present. We accept them. Just as we accept all of life's blessings without really feeling blessed. We baseline. We get used to how things are, but are incredibly sensitive to changes in the status quo. When something emerges that threatens our current state, we respond with fear, resistance.
Interesting. I'm what some people would call a "naturally angry" person, but I've found that when I lack a specific object to direct anger at, I'll often be content to simply be angry and disappointed in the world as a whole; that is, I'll FIND something to be upset about. It's certainly a problem with my own system of thinking more than anything else.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the use of certain words to make a point clearer is something that we will all be well served to remember. The difference between being angry at someone and hating them is a pretty big leap, and at the same time, pointing a certain emotion at someone might have unintended consequences if the audience has a hard time pinning down the emotion on a single subject, which is what I'm understanding as Ahmed's argument here.
I agree with what Gordon has written. Whereas we previously defined fear as being directed towards a particular object and anxiety as having no object, Ahmed calls fear an approach to an indefinite object. It is the approach to this indefinite object, the not knowing of who the terrorist is or why the alarm rings, that makes us feel fear.
ReplyDeleteOnce the object is known, fear is replaced by other emotions such as pity, acceptance, or sadness.