A Culture of Fear because of Fear

[Quantum Quack]

Just today I was sitting in my usual coffee shop, pondering the nature of fear when it dawned on me, as things sometimes do, that the pervasive nature of fear is in essense the creator of culture and cultural customs, traditions etc.....Now one could say Wow! what startling insight....ehhh....duh! but let me continue.....

Scenario:

I like most parents take a protective stance when it comes to our childrens welfare. But I ask my self what am I protecting them from?

I like most men know our genders potential to inflict harm. I reflect that fear of mans potential by creating a culture that protects my family from what I fear man 'could do" but what man am I talking about?
The man I know is me, .........me and my potential.

So in some cultures that have histories of violence, conservative behaviour is enshrined in both religion and law, simply because man fears man and mostly mans potential to behave badly.

I do realise this is no new idea in fact it is as old as mankind is.

But it was strikingly clear to me just how much this paranoia in the main affects our behaviour. Our dress, and even our choice of words, what we think and our ability to relate to each other is severely diminished simply because we fear ouselves in other men.

If any one has the time to just go sit in a place where people go by, a coffee shop or a restaurant and just look and ask your self the question "How pervasive is fear in our society, what are the effects?"

If you study for a while you will see that just about all behaviour is governed by our fear.

Care to discuss?

 

[apendrapew]

Men are very destructive. I know if I have a daughter some day, I will most certainly try to protect her from guys like me. And well, guys in general, but that wouldn't work because she needs the interaction. It would be something I'd have to deal with.

It almost seems that we know that destruction is our fuction too. For an example, you want to get into a relationship with 1 of 2 girls. One of them is stunningly beautiful and the other one is good looking. The super hot one has had many boyfriends and seems a little worn. The good looking one has had one boyfriend in her whole life. Both have good personalities.

Which one will most men pick? The second one. The first one is already destroyed, so what would be the use in dating her? Probably doesn't go through his thought process, but he knows his relationships don't end well. It results in his apathy and her destruction.

 

[beyondtimeandspace]

Quantum Quack, that is an intriguing insight, and I would agree with it off hand. However, I think hope is an important mover of human custom as well. True, many people probably act out of fear of past wrongs. However, I find it just as likely that people, in realizing their past wrongs, act in the hopes that those past wrongs aren't repeated. Hope... is a powerful thing.

 

[geodesic]

Hoping for A is exactly the same as fearing not-A. It's just that people prefer to say "I hope for peace" than "I fear war".
QQ:
For once I agree with you, and the biggest effect of fear is religion. Religion develops because of fear of the unknown, fear of death, fear of loneliness...

 

[Quantum Quack]

THanks for that,

To put it in this context:
I am what might be considered to be a modern contempory white male living in a modern, secular governed western country, Australia. We have certain fears about terrorism and the usual violence that exists in any society.

I belong to no religious groups and I am by all intents a liberated moderate.

The other day I was observing from my usual coffee shop vantage point, an Asian man possibly from Sri lanka walking to the plaza with his wife and young possibly 10 year old daughter. [race is not so important but culture is]

As they walked I noticed that the husband was constantly guarding his daughter. He was monitoring the people around him and looking for any signs of threat to his wife but most importantly to his daughter.
He was on guard all the time.....

He was obviously aware of how nasty some people are especially men and this I would suggest is because he knows just how nasty his potential is. [because he now lives in a relatively safe country compared to Sri lanka or India and his trepidation is out of perspective or context]

I then observed other cultures [ we have over 100 different cultures in my suburb alone] and it was interesting to see the different levels of fear orientated behaviours. [I am a voluteer tutor of rudementary English to local refugees here even though I can' spell properly - ]
The fear of smiling at people, the fear of charity workers collecting money, the fear of anything that looked like authority, etc.

I would suggest that this in the main is a fear of themselves reflected on to others.....because having been at this particular coffee shop for a number of years I know most of the people as being no real cause for fear. So in essense an air of paranoia exists.

When I start teaching another refugee basic English the first obstacle to overcome is the inherant fear they have towards any one....especially if they have children.

Boys are taught to be strong and assertive, and aggressive and girls are taught to be demure and submissive and very modest in dress and mannerisms. All stemming from a deisre to protect the child from the imaginary males that roam in the fathers mind.

And as you have said religion comes to the for in any climate of fear, as a way of helping the man justify his protective position and his paranoia.

Of course it is worth keeping in mind that this fear comes from somewhere and is learnt from past experience.
But I ask when is it time to drop the fear?

 

[apendrapew]

But I ask when is it time to drop the fear?

When you have no one left to care for. Relationships are so burdensome, aren't they?

 

[geodesic]

Ouch. *Awards apendrapew 'Cynic of the Month' award*

But I ask when is it time to drop the fear?

How are you planning on 'dropping' the fear? I mean, some people have phobias that are either disproportional, such as arachnophobia in the UK, or completely weird, like a fear of worms, and these fears are very hard to dispel, even by trained psychiatrists. More primal fears such as loneliness, death, predators etc. are pretty much hardwired into the brain. I guess you're not advocating radical neurosurgery.
Seriously, could you explain what exactly you meant?

 

[Quantum Quack]

I think what it was I was trying to explain was that fear like everything else becomes a part of who you are, not necessarilly a nice part. And some times we seem to cling to our fear as if it identifies us and is important to our self image etc....now this is no surprise when you think about how pervasive fear is and therefoire how entrenched it is in our conscious and subconsciousness. I guess it will never change unless we take steps to change it and I guess there is much fear in changing things too....

 

[Mephura]

Quantum Quack:

So in some cultures that have histories of violence, conservative behaviour is enshrined in both religion and law, simply because man fears man and mostly mans potential to behave badly.

Then what of the Hottentots or the Pygmies?
Navajos have no word for 'war'.

These and others, whose names are innumerable, are all fairly peaceful microcosms who's traditions are just as conservative and enshrined as a the Jew's or the Christian's, who've suffered carnage.

Explain?

But it was strikingly clear to me just how much this paranoia in the main affects our behaviour. Our dress, and even our choice of words, what we think and our ability to relate to each other is severely diminished simply because we fear ouselves in other men.

A nice little quote I found:

Now cast your eye to the softened world out your window, where on every street corner a smiling face will greet a pedestrian with halfhearted gestures and inquiries without as much caring for a response. There he is as indifferent as always, a spiteful, calculating lycanthrope in a Polo shirt forced into civility for man now fears Mankind in the name of Respect- an idea has crawled out from the battlefields and set up a network broadcasting a message of remorse, a message of guilt, a message of love and humanity held against us like a noose.

Again, generalized- respect is a luxury based on modern presumptions- the Negro was once a mule kept in the stable but now he is feared. So is the maid.

How pervasive is fear in our society, what are the effects?"

As pervasive as the fact that a group of organisms is far more powerful than one.

Which, you know, sucks.
Also- its a condition tied with sex. The ostracized are penalized internally with fear, which leads them back to group, which with leisure transmutes the feel of fear to one of safety.
Its in safety that the urge to procreate debuts.

So fear is something like the sexual urge inverting itself so that the organism experiencing it will re-orient itself to get rid of it and have it re-invert again to sex; cleverly serving the purpose of that species, that of staying together to procreate.

Get stranded all alone in the city next time, with no money or have your wifey kick you out. Examine the feeling.