Fear of the uncontrollable

Sandeep Raghuraman
Nov 6 · 4 min read

I have this theory that’s been bouncing around in my head for months, and wanted to write about it.

My idea is that all of the following:

  • Religion
  • Tradition
  • Superstitions
  • Karma
  • Destiny/fate
  • The Universe™️
  • Reiki
  • Vaastu/Feng Shui

are all due to fear of the uncontrollable.

Human beings are afraid to accept that there are many things beyond their control. The thought terrifies them so much, that they would rather believe in mythical and fantastic tales, rather than accept the truth. If some things can’t be controlled, then bad things beyond their control can happen to them and their loved ones — a terrifying idea.

Traditions and superstitions

People believe that everything can be controlled. If you stick to this manual, this set of instructions (tradition, superstition) then nothing bad can happen (even though it totally can). If you choose to break the rules, well then it’s on your head/you’re tempting fate etc.

It’s why people “knock on wood”, “don’t speak of evil” etc. They think that by avoiding bad thoughts, bad things can’t happen. By not speaking about bad things, the bad things can’t happen.

Karma, destiny/fate, The Universe and rebirth

Only good things can happen to people. If bad things happen to someone, it must have been their fault. They must have done something to deserve it.

This is the concept of karma.

But hold on — there are a huge number of cases where people have done only good actions throughout their lives, and yet bad things have happened to them. Why? Why?! WHY?!

Here, people decide to follow Sherlock Holmes' advice — fit the theory to the facts.

Here’s one of the conclusions people come to — such people probably did evil things in secret aka “they did something to deserve it”. Even if no such thing happened, people believe it was the victim’s fault, and they deserved the bad thing that happened to them.

Another conclusion they come to is that it was “prewritten” — destiny/fate or The Universe dictated that it must be so, and so it was. There is some big special plan, for all of creation, human beings, and everything happens for a reason, a purpose. They think that some people have special meaning or purpose for their lives, born to do great things, while some others are destined to be common, or fail.

But then,there are babies who have died soon after birth, or have debilitating medical conditions or have horrible things happen to them. What about them? What did they do to deserve such a fate? That brings us to the 3rd theory — multiple lives and rebirth.

In the case of people who have only done good actions throughout their lives, or babies/children (innocent people) and yet have bad things happen to them, the theory is changed to add multiple lives and rebirth into the mix. Now you can introduce bad actions in past or even future lives, and that’s why the bad things happened in the life that you know about.

What about bad people who do a lot of bad actions and only have good things happen to them?

  • Maybe their actions are not all that bad.
  • Bad things happened to them in their past lives, so they’re having good things happen now.
  • Bad things will happen to them in a future life as karma for their bad actions now

This is how people resolve troubling questions such as why there are so many bad people in the world who do shitty things and get away with it — they believe they will be punished later, as a form of divine retribution. Some other magical force or power will make them pay. That’s why you shouldn’t do anything to punish bad people or point it out, just bow to authority even if that authority openly abuses power and doesn’t punish bad people. It’s all happening for a reason — the lie we tell ourselves to comfort ourselves.

Religion, Reiki, Vaastu, Feng Shui etc.

On the flip side, sometimes people accept that some things are out of their (human beings’) control. It is of course still terrifying, so instead of accepting it, people assign control of the uncontrollable to some being like God (or Gods), or forces like Reiki, Vaastu, Feng Shui.

This way, they can now control the uncontrollable indirectly through this being or force — by prayer, rituals, arranging objects in a certain way, manipulating energy/chakra, using crystals etc.

Now everything is again under control, and all is well with the world again.

If you pray for something and it doesn’t happen your way, “you didn’t have enough faith”. “Pray with more belief and conviction in your heart.”

Why did that busload of school children die while this evil dictator lives in the lap of luxury? “God works in mysterious ways.”

What’s so bad about the above?

This fear has been used to justify many horrible things throughout history — for example, witch hunts during the medieval ages.

Unfortunately, it is also the reason why rape victims get blamed. People feel helpless, and instead of accepting that the victim couldn’t have done anything, they say things like “she shouldn’t have worn those clothes”, “she shouldn’t have gone to that part of town”, “she shouldn’t have been out so late”. They want to believe there was a way to prevent such a horrible thing from happening, so that they can reassure themselves — they’re afraid that such a thing can happen to them, out of their control, and instead of confronting and facing their fears, they blame victims instead.

Summing up

This may sound familiar to some, it’s actually similar to the behavior of people with anxiety issues and OCD. It’s all about anxiety and fear — except given how widespread such beliefs are, it’s a form of mass anxiety. A huge number of people in the world live in anxiety and fear, use it to justify horrible things, and consider themselves sane and well adjusted.

Rather than accept that some things are out of their control, they would rather believe anything else.

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