To Fear Or Not To Fear?

 

Throughout history, people have given up control of their lives to other people.  Those others tell us how we should live, and describe consequences for not living as they tell us to.  Yet often, they themselves do not live in accordance with what they tell us.

Preachers, ministers, priests, rabbis, imams.  Teachers, bosses, parents.  And especially polititians.  Let's call them "controllers".  That's really what they are.  Rare are those from the ranks of controllers are honest and honestly living as they tell us to live.  But controllers they are nonetheless, because they insist that what they tell us is the absolute truth, or some reasonable (or unreasonable) facsimile of truth.

Fear.  Think about it for a moment.  What are we afraid of?  What are YOU afraid of?  And what can we do to stop being afraid?  How can we end the ceaseless barrage of fear factors that keeps pounding against our awareness?

How many say that they are not afraid?  Does that lack of fear extend to defiance of what we call "norms"?  Consider some of the things we have feared: The Communist threat comes to mind.  So does the threat of hell and damnation from the religious establishment.  And currently there is the threat that, among other things, the government is going to "take our guns" or "destroy our nation" or some other such nonsense.

I'm reminded of Franklin Roosevelt's famous quote: "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."  This is the ultimate truth of fear.  Yet we keep giving ourselves to it, through our churches and synagogues and temples; through our schools and families and political leaders.  We're victims, not of the religions, the polititians, or any other so-called leaders, but of our own fears.  Fear of losing our jobs.  Fear of being broke.  Fear of being alone.  Fear of what the President might do.  Fear of eternal damnation.  All to keep us towing the line of whatever we've been taught to believe is true. 

Yes, you read that right: what we've been TAUGHT to believe is true.  Because we have been taught to believe what those leaders tell us.  We've also been taught to not bother thinking for ourselves.  And far too many are stuck in that paradigm, refusing to question our own beliefs about truth,  even when confronted by solid evidence that out beliefs are in error.

So how do we get out of that trap?  And it is a trap, because it denies reality.  ne way to start is to ask yourself, "Who benefits from this?"  As some would say, "Follow the money."  And there is truth in that.  But it's only the surface.  To look deeper, heck, even to look this deep, involves confronting our beliefs, examining them without bias and without emotion, both of which feed each other.  And that involves, in it's turn, what is perhaps our greatest fear: Accepting the possibility that our most deeply cherished beliefs are wrong. 

Yet that is exactly what we must do.  It is, in truth, exactly as Michael Jackson said in his song:  "If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change."

It begins with a very simple idea: We must love life, starting with ourselves.  But even more basic, we must simply love.  That is the only way for most of us to break away from fear.  In truth, it is the only thing that fear ... fears.

Namaste',
Don

© 2013 Donald C. Rice Jr.