The Reign of Fear

We are born and we grow up in the fear of the Mighty Master and his Master. From this visceral fear, rooted in each human being, profited many people who knew how to better control their fear, or who provided to others ways to better deal with theirs.

The idea of God started with the fear of the unknown and its consequences. God took different flavors with the different religions across thousands of years of history. During all these years, religious attempts oscillated between the image of the loving and merciful God and the revengeful and punishing God. All current known religions are a more of less successful mixture of these two images, with varying doses according to the era and the environment when this religion was created and throughout its evolution. The image of the loving God and the image of the revengeful God, which try to bring humans closer to God, play on the same human emotion. In the case of the revengeful God, humans worship God because they fear her anger and its consequences (death, hell, miserable life, …). In case of the loving God, humans worship her not because of her good deeds or values (as many people think), but rather in fear of losing her love and protection and thus falling back in the first case of the revengeful God. This is naturally understandable through the following fact: no matter how gullible humans are, one reality doesn’t elude their intelligence; all the goodness they receive in their lives is very rarely due to good luck, but rather to hard and smart labor, at the same time the badness they have to live through is never wanted or desired, quite the opposite, no effort is spared to keep it away; and when, despite all their efforts, the evil strikes, it is attributed to bad luck. This simple observation makes it clear that people don't cherish their good luck, the loving God, for what it brings them, since it rarely manifests itself concretely in their lives, but they do in fear of losing it, and ending up with their bad luck, the revengeful God, the generous distributor of sanctions, punishments and bad things!

This example of religion, the most important social phenomenon in the history of humanity, as we read above, illustrates fairly well a foundational truth in humans life: “the most fundamental feeling that governs humans life is not love as asserted by many, or hope as repeated by many others, or … it is simply fear!”

Two irrefutable proofs of this truth reside in a) the anteriority of fear to any other feeling there is and b) the omnipresence of fear in every word or action, in all the phases of our lives.

The first encounter between a human being and his/her life, when he/she ignores still everything about love, sadness, hope, joy, or any other feeling that he/she acquires later in his/her life, is an encounter dominated by fear, expressed with cries and tears. This fear pushes the newborn towards his/her mother breast seeking the food of survival. He/she discovers then, and before anything else the “fear of hunger, for adults it is concretely the fear of dying”.

We grow up in the midst of another fear, which pushes us to accept other people, to be gentle with them, to respect them, to love them, or to push them away, to imprison them, or to kill them. These are the “fear of loneliness” and the “fear of bad company”, but in reality there are nothing else but the “fear of suffering or dying” from loneliness or a bad company.

We strive all our lives to fend off another fear that motivates us continually to work harder, to lie, sometimes to cheat, to outsmart the others, to always make believe, … we are constantly fighting against the “fear of failing, of not being able to meet our basic needs”, therefore the “fear of suffering or dying”.

Many other examples in our daily lives, when analyzed, lead systematically to two kinds of fears that dictate our words, actions, and interactions. These two powerful fears overshadow our entire passage on this earth and underlie all our other fears: the “fear of suffering” and the “fear of dying”. In theory the “fear of dying” should surpass in dominance and impact the “fear of suffering”, because of our inability to defeat death or avoid it. But, for that same reason, the “fear of death” is not present in our daily lives; we repress it, most of the time, in our subconscious, and we spend our lives doing many things that distract us from feeling it, this is what is called the “Pascalian Diversion”. We only feel it in very specific moments or situations. And when we do, it often causes in us reactions of impotence, indifference, paralysis, depression, or sometimes euphoria and total panic. In practice the “fear of suffering” is more present, it is surrounding us and threatening us all the time and therefore it is more potent and defining in our daily lives. When we pray to keep sickness, loss of people we love, accidents, catastrophes, … away from us, we are actually praying to keep suffering, more than death, away from us. We fear suffering so much that, sometimes, in intense and endless suffering we can lose our “fear of dying” and call upon death to deliver us from our suffering.

Whether it is “fear of death” or “fear of suffering”, we live, we love, we hate, we hope and finally we die in fear. Many attempts in history have been made to help us deal with, control and maybe eliminate these two fears. Before exploring these attempts, it is worth noting that fear can have a positive and useful effect on humans: when they feel it, it takes away their carefreeness and forces them to stop and think. Fear becomes a starting point for a deeper reflection on their life and what to do with it. Fear also remains as an engine and a guide of courage and wisdom supporting their actions.

The attempt of religion

1. Suffering purifies the soul and ensures a better life after death. Suffering contributes in gaining the right for our soul to enter heaven or to reincarnate into a more noble form. Thus, people need to bear the suffering with patience and in silence, as Jesus showed us. By the same token, the suffering person must not fear death, since suffering in this life transforms death into a gateway into a happier eternal or recurring life.

​2. Death is partial and leads to a new better life.

Death is partial because it only concerns the ephemeral body and not the immortal soul. The soul of the pious lives forever in heaven next to God or through reincarnation into a new more evolved body. Therefore, if you are a religious person, following the teachings of God through his envoys (Buddha, Moses, Jesus…) you have no real reason to fear death.

3. Love and forgiveness are the way in this life and into the after.

They bring joy and peace of mind to those who feel them, receive them, and give them. In turn, joy and peace of mind temper the harshness of people’s continuous suffering. Moreover leading a life of love giving and forgiveness guarantees a good afterlife or next life.

I call this: the “hopeful” answer.

The attempt of science

1. The progress of physical and psychiatric medicine contributed in a significant way to alleviate human suffering and lengthen their healthy and active life. Life Expectancy has doubled (from 35 years to 70 years) in less than 200 years.

2. The inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as electricity, telephone, planes, computers, internet, mobiles, … have made people’s life much easier, have brought them closer to each other, and have contributed significantly in diminishing the amount of emotional and physical suffering involved in their daily lives. One invention stands out among all others in terms of reducing the number of death in the world, and this invention is the nuclear bomb. It stopped the Second World War and surely avoided many other equally deadly wars since.

​3. From a scientific point of view, suffering is relative, science alleviates it, and death is ineluctable and science postpones it.

I call this: the “pragmatic” answer.

Before exploring the other possible answers to fear, I would like to note that nowadays most people adopt a more effective, hybrid philosophy in their lives based on the religious and scientific answers.

1. For the materially wealthy, the scientific content is prevalent, since money is available to pay the costs of science, and earthly happiness is accessible to them. When the wealthy get sick, and the science cannot find the cure, the religious content increases in their answer to suffering and to the awaiting death.

2. For the materially deprived, the religious content is dominant, as they are keen to find an affordable deliverance, like religion and faith. Suffering is their daily bread anyhow, so maybe if they arm themselves with faith, patience and prayers, they will have a chance to enter heaven at the end of their hard life.

I call this: the “mix and match” answer.

The attempt of “Omar el Khayam” (Epicurean Persian Poet)

The continuous, tiring, and paralyzing fear takes its source from our exaggerated and sustained view towards the distant and unknown future.

Therefore, to concentrate on the present moment, that belongs to us, to profit from all its goodness, to get rid of all its nuisances, and not to think about the coming moments which are outside of our control and creators of anxiety, is the only way to win over this fear that makes us the slaves of other people, ideologies, organizations and states. To concentrate on the present moment is also the only way to taste the true flavor of absolute freedom and get rid of our fears.

I call this: the “evasive” answer.

The attempt of socialism/communism

Every person, as an individual, is isolated and vulnerable towards his/her fears.

The life of the individual does not belong exclusively to him, but also to the society/community to which he belongs. Therefore, the suffering of the individual is bearable if it leads to the happiness of the society/community, and the death of the individual is acceptable if it reinforces the eternity of the society/community. Fear, in these conditions, transcend the individual to the society/community, and becomes thus fuzzier and more dispersed, and by consequence its impact on the individual lesser. The socialism/communism addresses the problem of fear from suffering and dying by linking the fate of a group of individuals towards one common and tangible goal: the prosperity of the society/community. In turn, the prosperous society/community hosts and takes cares of the individual, allowing him to draw his courage and strength from it.

I call this: the “idealistic” answer.

Religion and communism share a similar vision centered around achieving perfect happiness and/or harmony through heaven or through the community. Looking for absolute things, always create absolute positions, such as extremism and radicalism. But these are opposite to the adaptive human nature, and with time, they lead to corruption, dissolution, division, and finally disillusion, losing thus their protection power against the fear of suffering and death.

I call this: the “temporary” answer.

The attempt of capitalism

Suffering is a fact of life and dying is the inexorable end of it.

The objective of each human being is to find all the possible ways to lessen the suffering and push away death as far as possible. This objective is not possible without wealth. Wealth allows us to eliminate the anxiety of tomorrow, to afford the best medicine to fight against physical and psychological suffering and to push out the occurrence of death. Wealth is also important to lead a healthy life: eating sane food and having the time to exercise and keep our body in shape. Beyond its direct usefulness to the individual that owns it, money is a powerful way to help the less fortunate in their strife against suffering and death, by creating work, donating food, building hospitals, schools, etcetera. Moreover, helping (charity) others is a good thing, recommended and encouraged by all religions and social morals; therefore it is also a way to secure a certain amount of earthly joy and peace of mind and a possible entry into heaven when the time comes. In conclusion, money alleviates suffering, postpones death and diminishes the fear of death and the beyond.

I call this: the “honest & cynical” answer.

The attempt of the existentialism

Fear and anxiety are necessary states in which people progress and evolve.

There is no universal moral that dictates our behavior. There aren’t premade answers for all the questions that we pose in our lives. Therefore, as responsible individuals, for our lives and the lives of people around us, we should be continuously trying to find the right answers among all available and possible ones. This state of endless decision making and choosing creates a feeling of permanent anxiety in each of us. Nevertheless these decisions and choices are necessary to act and move forward, and as consequence, the anxiety and the fear that accompany them are equally necessary and vital.

I call this: the “theoretical” answer.

The attempt of the "pedantic philosophers"

Fear is one emotion like many others. It is not worse or better that any other state, physical or psychic, that we could be in at some point of our life. Therefore, we could live with fear, as we could live with love, hope, pain, pleasure or any other known feeling or emotion.

I call this: the “empty” answer.

The final attempt or my attempt

If there should be a final answer, even if I firmly believe that there isn’t ONE definitive answer, then I would call it: the “powerful” answer. In this attempt, the fear of suffering and dying is used as an engine of motivation to always acquire the necessary (spiritual, material, intellectual, and physical) power to find or create what will provide the people we care about and therefore ourselves, with more joy and peace of mind, the best remedies against fear. During this constant quest for power, it is fundamental to avoid trying to answer the “why” questions, and to focus all our energy in finding the answers to the “how” ones. Basically what I am saying is: “Live to enjoy, the rest is going to happen anyway!” In the “rest” there will be suffering and dying!

I will finish this paper with one of my favorite quotes and it is from Hannibal, the famous Carthaginian leader. Before marching with his troops and elephants to conquer Rome, Hannibal told them: “We must find a way, or we will make one”. For the story, he made his way to Rome through the Alp Mountains, with his elephants, but failed to conquer it. His failure was due to his inability to acquire, from his senate, the financial power he needed to fund this epic mission…