For as long as I can remember I have been afraid. Of what? Everything. Life, death, work, play...it's all caused fear. Why? The really self righteous would say it's because I don't trust God, or because I know that I'm not ready to face Him, and for a long time deep in my heart I believed that. Then I started to look at things, really look at things. Everything around us is made to instill fear. Every form of media, every organization, every form of entertainment...we are conditioned to fear. Because through fear we are controlled.
From the time we are children our parents used fear to make us behave. Fear of punishment, fear of getting injured, fear of disappointing our families, our selves and God. The news (tv and print) thrives on fear. We keep watching in order to know what we need to fear. Even your friends sell fear. Look at their Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. statuses and see how many have posted some political, evangelical, or scientific story that is about something we should fear. We fear oppression, taxes, government, technology, lack of technology, illness, health, knowledge, lack of knowledge. We fear meeting new people, losing those we love, starting a new job, losing the one we have, getting older, staying young. There are even sounds created to instill fear - fire alarms, police/ambulance sirens, that annoying Emergency Broadcast System buzzer. We fear everything.
Even the holiest of books, The Bible, spreads fear if read and interpreted in that context. Take the book of Revelation in the New Testament, or look at Isaiah in the Old Testament. Look at the warnings, the signs, the omens of bad times or the end times. Entire passages and books are written specifically toward fear. So how can anyone tell me that to fear is to turn my back on God, when "God's book" is full of things I should fear?
Because ultimately, deep down in the root of us, biologically speaking, we have learned that fear is the best way to control. In nature, the animals that are the most feared are the most effective predators. In business and politics the more that you are taught to fear the competition or the other party's agendas the more you are controlled by the company or party you belong to. The more you fear a person or group, the more control they have over you. We speak of terrorism in this day and age as if it's a new concept, like it's never happened on this scale before. That's a lie. It's not the concept that is new, it's the means of spreading it's word that has evolved. How much power would so called "terrorists" have if no one ever reported on their activities? (and granted I'm taking out the mass destruction factors that are at everyone's disposal nowadays, this is all theoretical) Do you think the Roman Empire would have spread so wide if they hadn't been feared? The Babylonians? The Nazis? What about conquerors like Alexander the Great? Ghengis Khan? Do you think the Cold War would have really been so big a deal if we weren't constantly being told about how afraid we were supposed to be? Any war for that matter.
My point is that fear makes the world go round. Not money, not love, because we fear losing or possessing those things. Count how many things you read, see or hear today that are geared toward making you afraid. It could be a news article, your friend talking about some extremist political or religious movement, your job whispering about cutbacks, scientists talking about the earth's environment changing.
What about books, songs or movies. How many of us love a good scary story or film? How many songs are written about things we should fear? Think of popular children's songs like "Ring around the Rosies" which is all about plague or "London Bridge is Falling Down" which is about political upheaval. Television shows about crime detection, movies with monsters that haunt us, books (fiction and non) about all the horrible things out there.
What I have discovered, for myself, is that it's not what is out there but how you look at it. A reprogramming of the mind is in order. It's not easy, I've been battling this for years and am still struggling, but it's necessary. I've decided that I'm tired of letting all this fear mongering control me. I'm stepping back from everything and taking a new look. For once my rational must win over my irrational. Fearing is not turning my back on God but giving in to my programming. I even have to change the way I look at the Bible. As blasphemous as some may see it, I have to look at the fact that all words contained in that book were put there by men. God may have given them the words, but like that child's game of telephone, I believe something got lost in translation or at least in interpretation.
For a long time I've considered the only way to escape this control was to cut myself off from the sources. I stopped watching the news, discussing politics, I even stopped going to church because I got tired of the fear preached from the pulpits. I stopped reading the Bible because I didn't want to read about the omens and signs, the wretched things that happened to those who God did not favor. I stopped reading or listening to things dealing with my religion because I was tired of all the "the end is nigh" messages. I admit that in some ways it has worked. It has allowed me to free my mind a wee bit. It's allowed me to take a breath of air and dissect what I was really seeing and hearing. But it's not a way to sustain, so now the hard task of plugging myself back into this system comes. I admit, I'm afraid of that, but really what is there to fear?
Words cannot hurt me unless I allow them to. Stories are just stories, movies are just movies, the news is nothing more than someone's interpretation of events. Earthquakes, storms, volcanoes, plagues, are just natural forces that have always occurred. Ultimately what it comes down to, what the fear leads you to, is the realization that your physical life is finite. That is the scariest thought of all.
If I could I'd declare a world wide "Ignore the Fear" day. I'd urge everyone to not watch the news or read news articles, to stay home from their jobs, to not read their Facebooks, MySpace, Twitters, etc. Shut off their phones, and I'd even encourage them to not read their Bible or other religious book and to just go outside and look around. To take a breath and to shut your ears and eyes for a day from all the propaganda of fear. Unfortunately that would be impossible because it's so ingrained, that we'd just discuss it with each other, even in total isolation we'd be afraid of all that we're missing out on.
A definite reprogramming is needed....after all, Roosevelt's adage was correct. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. However, it is the most powerful enemy we face. Does that make you afraid?
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