‘FEAR’ – SOME OBSERVATIONS, PART I. .

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. –FDR

These past few weeks I have been reflecting, once again, on FEAR.  I am aware of the ‘fear I carry’ and I am aware of the ‘fear that we humans carry.’  My conclusion: We are fear-full.  The negative power of fear is whelming us all over.  It seems that fear not only covers us like a shroud, it also permeates our very being – it permeates our mind, our heart and our soul.  Do we, today, know what a life without fear is like?

There always seems something for me, for us, to fear.  This ‘something’ exists outside of ourselves and exists within ourselves.  Our ‘fear-free’ moments seem more and more fleeting.  It seems that when we think, speak, respond, or react that fear always seems to be present.  It seems that we are unable – or is it unwilling – to throw the shroud of fear off or to exorcise the fear-demon that resides within.  How extensively does ‘fear’ impact, if not control, our choices and decisions?

Fear is a major tap root that feeds and nurtures our anger and rage.  Fear is the tap root that feeds and nurtures our depression.  Fear opens a pathway to the land of darkness and despair.  I know the power of fear.  Earlier in my life my fear became so intolerable that death became the way to relief; self-destruction was, paradoxically, liberating.

It seems that the 21^st Century is well on its way to becoming the Century-of-Fear.  Not only are we ‘residing in fear’ we are ‘becoming fear.’  How many of us have already taken on ‘fear’ as our ‘identity’?

‘Why, I ask, are we so terribly afraid?’  This is question is followed by another: Would fear be so rampant if it was not use-full?  And then another question emerges into my consciousness: What needs are being met by our being so fear-full?

I have been holding these questions. A word emerged: ‘Power.’  It seems to me that there is a close connection between power and fear.  One primary use of power is to instill fear (turn on the daily news and this connection will not be hard to discern).  The use of power instills and maintains fear.  I am now thinking of all of the fear-full children, the fear-full students, the fear-full teachers, the fear-full parents, the fear-full employees, the fear-full executives, the fear-full politicians, the fear-full ministers, the fear-full. . .(you, gentle reader can easily add to this list).

Behind each of these fear-full humans stands another human – or an organized group of humans – who are deemed to be ‘power-full’ and who seek to hold them/us under their control (or who, by default find themselves in power-full positions).  These power-holders are, paradoxically, also fear-filled.  Their fear-filled agenda becomes ours (or they want us to embrace their fear-filled agenda).

The ‘agenda of our world’ – the issues and stories that fill social media, that permeate the news, that are instantly available to us, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – is, to a great extent, an agenda of ‘power’ and ‘fear.’

Consider that the things we worry about, think about, reflect upon, prepare ourselves for and spend our time and energy on are in large part determined by a ‘world’ which seduces us by its fear-full questions.

What, you might be asking, are some of these fear-full questions?