The managed induction of terror — pay-to-be-managed, the pampering-to-death mechanism inverted
echoes
From: Getting Away from Already Pretty Much Being Away from It All
- Early text: the world "divides neatly into those who are excited
by the managed induction of terror and those who are not" [08/15/1930h, the
Near-Death-rides passage]; "Why pay money to cause something to occur you will
be grateful to survive?" [08/15/1930h, the SKY COASTER set-piece, final pages].
- IJ echo: The novel's addiction/Entertainment logic of paying (with money,
attention, life) for an engineered experience that consumes you — the
relief-that-recreates-need and pleasure-run-to-lethality machinery. The cruise
essay names the pleasure version ("survived (in a way) being pampered to death
(in a way)" — asft-cruise-essay sec. 13); this essay names the terror version of
the same paid-managed-experience-you-should-flee, with the same incredulous
rhetorical question.
- Weight: shared-preoccupation