The Panic Economy

Tumescence expresses itself by exaggerating or diminishing conditions.
 It inflates situations with panic, threat, or warning—or it diminishes them by ignoring, dismissing, or downplaying.

Wherever there is upset or mania, there is tumescence.
Wherever there is hard-heartedness, there is tumescence.

Tumescence is the unexpressed creativity within you, but it has a “mind” of its own. In truth, it feeds on pain.
It thrives on anxiety, grievance, and distress—either seeking validation for its own suffering or provoking it in others to feed off their outrage.

Eros, in contrast, is right-sizing.
It is the ability to see clearly—without reaction, but with response.


When someone posts “Danger! Danger! Danger!”—that is tumescence.

 

When someone insists “There is absolutely no danger”—that is also tumescence.

 

When people declare
”They are crazy or dangerous”—both forms of tumescence meet.

Look at any topic
from Jeff Bezos’s wife’s corset to Elon Musk—and scan for tumescent expression. In a world where tumescence dominates and Eros is scarce, judgment masquerades as sight. Sometimes, it even passes as wisdom.

A useful litmus test:
If reading a post makes your internal thermometer spike, it was likely designed to “get a rise out of you.” Why? Because when you’re emotionally charged—when you’re out of your mind—you become easier to sway, easier to influence.
This is the stock and trade of most media, especially social media.

Read every “Get upset!” as “I want to control your beliefs.”
It’s fundamentalism at its best—evangelical in nature. The subtext “therefore you should” is embedded in every post designed to provoke outrage or panic.
If we want to see for ourselves, we must learn to see subtext.

Even now, ask yourself: What is my intent?
What action do I want you to take?
My intent is to turn people on to the process of accurate seeing and thinking—because I believe it would make for a far more interesting and sane world.

If I had a single action for you to take, it would be to read Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa—one of the most accessible books on how to think. If you want to go deeper, read Science and Sanity by Korzybski.