Post by lazario on Aug 7, 2007 18:34:30 GMT -5
The other day, I was thinking of the fundamental fears and how rational each is. And I kind of came up with 3 really basic fears and ranked them on how probable and rational they are. Here's what I've come up with. Tell me if you have your own, or if you agree with one of mine:
1. The Unknown:
Clearly, I've ranked this as the least rational fear. One of the reasons why is because of the historical significance placed on this fear in light of today's logical approach to forming the basis for having a fear. Today, our fears are at their most primal and sensical. But, in the years going back a-ways... people were afraid for any reason they could come up with. And the reasoning they used to substantiate their fears were just downright ludicrous. This one basically goes back, I'd say, as early as The Salem Witch Trials. And by Witch-Trials, most of us know they just accused any old person of being a witch. Why? Because of natural selection, bad luck, and pure ignorance. The combination of these is what really killed puritanical American values. Things just happen. People got diseases, crops just died, and people were afraid because they didn't know what to do. And for some reason, killing always seems to give many people the sense that they have less to fear.
But... why stop there? The killing and enslaving of the Indian Tribes came first, didn't it? Our leaders wanted the land, and so to get it, they used the fears we had about the Indian people and their strange and bizarre customs different to our own to make us think they were "savages," when really they were just different. Even today, I suspect much of the reason why this remains heavily white-washed over in history is because the current ruling class still believe those people to be wrong, instead of different. Just look at patterns of religious living. The Indians believed in natural-religion. The religion of nature; they worshipped the Earth. While today's religious community feel a strong sense to keep away from nature and to demonize all religions that place an importance on caring for the environment and its' creatures. To keep with their preferred conservative cultural and political icons.
But, to bring this into a more modern spotlight... The fear of communism, blacks, gays, and today's labeling of all things we do not know about as Terrorism or Terrorist. All good examples. To really look at the title of this fear, "the Unknown," is to know why this fear is irrational. Because it plays on one's imagination. And part of where fear plays into our imagination, has to do with why our human need to fear is, generally-speaking, important for survival. This is a conflict of interests, clearly. Because we know we need to fear, but when we fear what we cannot see (again, the Unknown), we cannot judge fairly. But we know it happens, because we know how wrong it is to feel the need to fear what we cannot see. In some cases.
Fear of the Unknown is rational in some cases. Life is a system of predator and prey relationships. When we go by the book of Nature. We know there are hungry bears, sharks, or alligators out there who would hunt and eat us if they decided to. This is rational. But society has given us the unrational fears against groups of people who live among us for various reasons. Fear of The Big, Angry, Violent, and potentially Sexually-Invasive Black Person is classic. Why was this ever a fear? None of us growing up today can legitimately fathom that. Even those of us who still identify Black as the color of economic disparity and poverty. But, when you put a price on what is commonly seen as black labor... you see where the social prejudice comes in. From there, it's not much of a stretch to see Black Crime as a genuine threat to the pure whites. An even more sensitive is still the issue of "mixed" couples of different races.
I guess someone like Sigmund Freud would have identified all of our fears as sexual. Symbolizing the fear of invasion - aka: rape or penetration. And yet we have perfect examples of why that is. When we see The Macho Cultural Icon - the Cowboy, the Cop, the Soldier, the Republican Politician - we can easily link the fear of invading or aggressive sexuality to the fear of losing power and control. Yet sexuality is not something that can be controlled. This is a pretty harmless fact. But the small-mind will have you believe the reason this is something to fear, is by showing you examples of free sexual expression and insisting it always leads to death or destruction. Gay pride parades, youth-oriented dance clubs, Hippie communes, the beaches during Spring Break. For the individual, this fear is rational. But for society, this is irrational. Because as you can see, these things are still somewhat self-contained.
And then, there's the fear of the Way of Life that is not our own. Which is perhaps the link that unites all the groups of people we fear without reason. This may link to yet another reason - the militarization of every action we take. That living means fighting someone else for superiority. That a gay person being gay means they are by their human nature forcing the straights to turn their way. Or that black people by their nature are loud and aggressive, so they want to always take over your space (thereby, taking from you = fear of blacks as thieves). But the fear of terrorism and communism is another sort-of society that thinks its' way is better. And thereby aren't content with just keeping their system for themselves, but that they want to force us to do it too. By infiltrating ours and slowly converting our people to their ways. I connect this one with the classic, "President Says" edict. That if the most public figure says it, there's a large degree of legitimacy to it.
2. Things ARE What They Appear to Be:
A lot of people love to deny this is something that qualifies as a fear. Because of the cultural popularization of the "I ain't scared of nuthin'" type. So things like bugs, heights, and weirdoes who look like real weirdoes are usually subjects of parody and spoofing rather than given their due for being things that everyone is scared of. The one thing they all have in common? They are 100% harmless most of the time... until they break through your barrier. Until they get too close to you, or you get too close to them. Because if you're not paying attention, you will mistake their usual harmlessness and
3. It Can Happen... to You!:
Then, there is what I consider to be the single most rational fear of 'em all. That you've seen or heard of something horrible happening and being afraid that it will happen to you sooner or later. The anticipation keeps springing up in your mind. You could be in an accident! You could be the victim of a crime! You could contract a life-threatening illness!
I might add more to this later. I'm very tired right now and this unfortunately ended up last on my list of things to do.
1. The Unknown:
Clearly, I've ranked this as the least rational fear. One of the reasons why is because of the historical significance placed on this fear in light of today's logical approach to forming the basis for having a fear. Today, our fears are at their most primal and sensical. But, in the years going back a-ways... people were afraid for any reason they could come up with. And the reasoning they used to substantiate their fears were just downright ludicrous. This one basically goes back, I'd say, as early as The Salem Witch Trials. And by Witch-Trials, most of us know they just accused any old person of being a witch. Why? Because of natural selection, bad luck, and pure ignorance. The combination of these is what really killed puritanical American values. Things just happen. People got diseases, crops just died, and people were afraid because they didn't know what to do. And for some reason, killing always seems to give many people the sense that they have less to fear.
But... why stop there? The killing and enslaving of the Indian Tribes came first, didn't it? Our leaders wanted the land, and so to get it, they used the fears we had about the Indian people and their strange and bizarre customs different to our own to make us think they were "savages," when really they were just different. Even today, I suspect much of the reason why this remains heavily white-washed over in history is because the current ruling class still believe those people to be wrong, instead of different. Just look at patterns of religious living. The Indians believed in natural-religion. The religion of nature; they worshipped the Earth. While today's religious community feel a strong sense to keep away from nature and to demonize all religions that place an importance on caring for the environment and its' creatures. To keep with their preferred conservative cultural and political icons.
But, to bring this into a more modern spotlight... The fear of communism, blacks, gays, and today's labeling of all things we do not know about as Terrorism or Terrorist. All good examples. To really look at the title of this fear, "the Unknown," is to know why this fear is irrational. Because it plays on one's imagination. And part of where fear plays into our imagination, has to do with why our human need to fear is, generally-speaking, important for survival. This is a conflict of interests, clearly. Because we know we need to fear, but when we fear what we cannot see (again, the Unknown), we cannot judge fairly. But we know it happens, because we know how wrong it is to feel the need to fear what we cannot see. In some cases.
Fear of the Unknown is rational in some cases. Life is a system of predator and prey relationships. When we go by the book of Nature. We know there are hungry bears, sharks, or alligators out there who would hunt and eat us if they decided to. This is rational. But society has given us the unrational fears against groups of people who live among us for various reasons. Fear of The Big, Angry, Violent, and potentially Sexually-Invasive Black Person is classic. Why was this ever a fear? None of us growing up today can legitimately fathom that. Even those of us who still identify Black as the color of economic disparity and poverty. But, when you put a price on what is commonly seen as black labor... you see where the social prejudice comes in. From there, it's not much of a stretch to see Black Crime as a genuine threat to the pure whites. An even more sensitive is still the issue of "mixed" couples of different races.
I guess someone like Sigmund Freud would have identified all of our fears as sexual. Symbolizing the fear of invasion - aka: rape or penetration. And yet we have perfect examples of why that is. When we see The Macho Cultural Icon - the Cowboy, the Cop, the Soldier, the Republican Politician - we can easily link the fear of invading or aggressive sexuality to the fear of losing power and control. Yet sexuality is not something that can be controlled. This is a pretty harmless fact. But the small-mind will have you believe the reason this is something to fear, is by showing you examples of free sexual expression and insisting it always leads to death or destruction. Gay pride parades, youth-oriented dance clubs, Hippie communes, the beaches during Spring Break. For the individual, this fear is rational. But for society, this is irrational. Because as you can see, these things are still somewhat self-contained.
And then, there's the fear of the Way of Life that is not our own. Which is perhaps the link that unites all the groups of people we fear without reason. This may link to yet another reason - the militarization of every action we take. That living means fighting someone else for superiority. That a gay person being gay means they are by their human nature forcing the straights to turn their way. Or that black people by their nature are loud and aggressive, so they want to always take over your space (thereby, taking from you = fear of blacks as thieves). But the fear of terrorism and communism is another sort-of society that thinks its' way is better. And thereby aren't content with just keeping their system for themselves, but that they want to force us to do it too. By infiltrating ours and slowly converting our people to their ways. I connect this one with the classic, "President Says" edict. That if the most public figure says it, there's a large degree of legitimacy to it.
2. Things ARE What They Appear to Be:
A lot of people love to deny this is something that qualifies as a fear. Because of the cultural popularization of the "I ain't scared of nuthin'" type. So things like bugs, heights, and weirdoes who look like real weirdoes are usually subjects of parody and spoofing rather than given their due for being things that everyone is scared of. The one thing they all have in common? They are 100% harmless most of the time... until they break through your barrier. Until they get too close to you, or you get too close to them. Because if you're not paying attention, you will mistake their usual harmlessness and
3. It Can Happen... to You!:
Then, there is what I consider to be the single most rational fear of 'em all. That you've seen or heard of something horrible happening and being afraid that it will happen to you sooner or later. The anticipation keeps springing up in your mind. You could be in an accident! You could be the victim of a crime! You could contract a life-threatening illness!
I might add more to this later. I'm very tired right now and this unfortunately ended up last on my list of things to do.
