The Tenacity of Fear
Nothing throughout our time in this world has enjoyed such long-reigned power than that of fear. Quick off the mark, the sheer speed of knee-jerk irrationality can trump even the pinnicle of logic & reason. A seasoned veteran with aeons of experience — it has led our species away from predators, through the harshness of evolution and into the triumph of today’s modern age. Yet it is this very instinct — one that was indeed our trusty guide for as long as history delves — that is facing its own existential crisis.
Sure, it has been reliable thus far — reinforcing our sense of being and keeping us away from potential harm. But in this age of information — as our collective emphasis moves toward reason & empathy — it is fast becoming obsolete. A beast once empowered with free & inconsequential reign it is now resigned to a captive existence — one of conscious limitation overseen by the interwoven etiquette of our modern society.
But it’s no secret that this particular beast is caged by frail and fragile bars.
Johnny Cash quotes aside, how exactly can such a matured instinct be relegated so? It can't. Even in domestication, the ferality of fear still remains — defiantly adapting to its captivity and embedding its grip on us more so. While its greatest threat — the foundation of all civility that is education — enjoys unprecedented levels of availability, fear itself continues to cling on desperately in its self-maintenance. Fighting for its own ironic survival, fear alters its strategy and becomes more selective in its targets – approaching those it can manipulate the most and intensifying itself in order to expand further.
With such a force at play, it only takes the wicked cunning of the elite to harness this explosive pandemic. With charisma and opportunism in hand, all that's required is a colourful demagogue to fire the shots, stir the masses and rally the factually starved to their own egocentric agenda.
Such is the parasitic nature of fear, altering its host's behaviour and shutting down all semblance of logic & reason. Instead the victim languishes for a leader who will offer them the unrealistic narrative they crave. One that not only legitimises such emotional poison but misleads them in the vague direction of the alleged antidote.
Despite such phenomena, today's digital era has the potential to provide a pivotal watershed in fear's aeonic career. A recent spike in activity perhaps, before it's steady decline into unnecessity.
Like any hardened survivalist however — it won't go down without a fight, and there will always be those who wish to exploit its astonishing tendency to manipulate. The only effective defence then is a contrasting epidemic. A collective effort to nurture a countering instinct of natural open-mindedness and urge for critical engagement. The greatest gift we can provide for the next generation.
In its current search for new purpose, fear wastes no time in desperately maintaining its own relevance in a world where access to factual enlightenment surpasses new heights each year. An expert of evasion, it defies this opposition against all odds. To fight this enemy then means to fight fire with fire.
To defy fear.
