Fear is not just a feeling, it’s a universal law.
From the projective fear to lack to the fear to be caught by mum, from the alpha male ruling the pack to the acidity of a tree repulsing others plants away, from the electron who fear the proton to the star who fear the black hole aside. Fear is the way not to be killed, eaten or destroy. It’s the first sign of the Logos, the intelligence that tell us right from wrong, not the one that solves equations. Fear is why we are here nowadays, surviving.
When others fear you, you gain power.
As the black hole impress the star, the alpha male impress the youngest, as soon as human kind has arised, the strongest knew how to impress the mob and the benefits of this situation. Civilizations, religions, arts and sciences did only try to organize a state of fact. Civilizations produce usages and laws to stabilize the powers in time by balancing the fears with rights and duties. Religions give us the “ultimate answer” to all fears, but that answer isn’t clear enough so we need and fear the clerk precisions, giving it power. Arts will always be our link between our inner imagined world and reality, and backward, telling in fictions more reality the real could tell. And Sciences are just another way to shut our fears up by providing some “reasonable” answers.
You can fight fear, by the knowledge.
So, it is clear that every time mankind fights the unknown, it fights its fears too. But there are two paradox within. The first is the status of the unknown in our psychology: it is the greatest source of fear but it also fascinate us to the point that it is the only thing we do really love. We all know that, in a couple, once each knows the other’s secrets the passionate love feeling turns into something else, like a habit love, the security of the well-known home contrasting with fascination of the first times discovery. The second paradox is the more we know, the more we learn how little we know, (re)discovering our huge ignorance on each major breakthrough, and this at every step or level of knowledge. From this, we can figure out that the actual weapon against fear is not the knowledge itself but the will to get to it, the curiosity, a special interest … for the unknown.
Fight the power with education.
The will to know doesn’t come by itself, it’s much easier to lay back and let the TV tell us what to think. And the older we get the harder it is. Yet, knowledge is like a drug, once one taste it, he will come back to it. So, sharpen your critical, welcome the doubt, use it to check, search, gather information to make your mind up by yourself. Knowledge is so vast that everyone can always find his/her little favorite niche, something to get really interested into, at the hedge of the passion, just because he/she likes the subject. There are so many sciences, pick one. And if you don’t like science, you can study something more cultural: human relations, arts or craft. Everyone can become a specialist, each in its very own domains. And you are a specialist, about any topic, you gain respect and consideration. On the other hand, in the violent modern world we are living in, a lot of people try to gain power over the others by taking advantage of their ignorance. The more you are educated, the best you are protected against that.
One only learn with others, not by oneself.
So, what are the best places to get Education and Knowledge? First best place is Home, from parents to children. Not only by providing them means and encouragements, but mostly by giving them the example. In a family where parents read books, listen to music or go to the theater, rather to watch TV every evening, you can bet that the children have a much stronger will to learn and will be more successful. I, personally, could never thank my parents enough for they made (let) me listen countless times Peter and the Wolf and Peer Gynt. The second best place to learn is School, it is made for that, every thing is there: documentation, teachers, study rooms and organization. It funny how adults apprehend to go back to school. When I do so, I love the feeling of my brain working again. Last, but never to be forgotten, the third best place to learn is Life, every day, every minute, with every one. First, always remember that, however high educated you are, you can not know everything about everything, and you can easily find a “specialist” of a domain you don’t know about. Then, one gain much more experience doing things with others rather than alone. Facing a problem together is easier, every point of view adds precisions and corrections to the master plan, some, more experienced, will give tricks to youngest and the solution/result is better, so everyone involved wins again.
But this only works if we pay attention, to the people, to what they do, and to the reasons they do so.
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