A child is misbehaving. His parents have tried many ways to curb the misbehavior. Finally, the parents tell the child, if you do not behave a certain way, a monster will get you when you are alone in your room, or that the police will come to send him to jail. The child immediately stops his misbehavior.
What made the child behave?
Love is considered to be the greatest motivator known to man. While love becomes a sufficient enough motivation for a limited number of individuals, fear, on the other hand, is capable of motivating all – It is a universal motivator. For that reason, it is a powerful tool. It is wielded by each and every one of us to make another individual perform our preferred set of actions.
It is a tool wielded by parents to control their children. It is a tool wielded by educators to control their students, It is a tool wielded by political parties and governments to motivate and make loyalists out of the citizenry. It is a tool wielded by corporations to sell their products. It is a tool wielded by organized religion to motivate and make followers out of their patrons. It is a tool wielded by friends, relatives and many more to make others follow their preferred path.
It is a tool that is so easy to use that every one of us use it, both consciously and unconsciously, to “guide” the actions and perspectives of others.
Conditioning by Fear
Beginning from childhood, we are conditioned by our parents, relatives and other elders to follow certain codes of behavior through the effective use of fear. Following that, throughout our lives, we are exposed to ideas and beliefs that utilize our fears to condition us into behaving a certain way.
During childhood, we are warned about monsters and/or bad consequences if we do not conform to the morals and norms defined by our elders. We are warned of bad experiences in life, and in the afterlife, as consequences of our “bad” actions. We are struck by our parents so that we may behave a certain way, out of fear of getting hurt again. We are told stories of bad people or bad animals facing bad consequences in response to their actions deemed immoral or incorrect.
Once we escape the confines of our homes, we are further exposed to conditioning by fear by other elements within our societies.
Our government, warns us about enemy nations and enemies of state that can destroy our way of life or terrorize our lives. We build weapons of war and annihilation, out of fear. Laws and our justice system make us behave a certain way, utilizing our fear of consequences.
Organized religions warn us about bad consequences in our lives and afterlives if we do not behave a certain way. We are taught about all powerful deities who are watching everything we do — Who, have the power to judge us and punish us if we do not follow certain moral codes.
Political parties incite fear about their rivals, other minorities, and more, in order to gain support for themselves.
Pharmaceutical companies sow fear about diseases in order to sell their medicines.
Fear Makes the World Go Around
Thus, our lives are mostly driven by fear. Our faith is the result of fear, our political affiliations are driven by our fears, our hatred or dislike towards others is driven by fear. Fear of pain, fear of losing our comforts, fear of losing our statuses, fear of losing what we have, fear of losing what we hope to have, fear of fear, and much much more — Fear makes the world go around .
The Loss Of Control
As individuals, we can remember much of our past. The world remembers its past though written, engraved and digitized records of its past. But, our futures are unknown. No known or accessible records exist of our futures. Hence, it raises fear in us — we fear the unknown. How bad could my future be? Will my efforts lead to desirable outcomes? What would happen to me after I die? That fear, is used as a tool by others to control us — to make followers out of us. It makes us follow a path determined by the wielder of that tool. By allowing fear to take control, we give control of our perspectives and our futures to those who wield this tool against us.
Fear that results in us ceding control to the selfish interests of others must, therefore, be rejected and overcome.
NOTE:
Not all loss of control is detrimental. A fair law and justice system, for instance, ensures that order is maintained in our society through the effective use of fear.
If we had no fear of being caught speeding and facing justice, would we watch our speed when we drive? If speeding fines are too low, and if there are no other bad consequences for speeding, would such a law even be effective in preventing speeding?
The fear of significant consequence is what makes us obey a low.
Our laws and justice systems use fear to maintain order in our society.
Fear Is A Necessity
Fear is a useful tool when we use it ourselves to guide our actions. It keeps us from causing harm to ourselves and others. However, it is important to remember that it can also very easily be used by others to drive our actions.
We humans are creatures driven by our instinct to become the fittest (most successful) amongst our peers. That instinct drives many of us to take unfair advantage of others in our society; sometimes by forcibly taking from them, sometimes by unfairly harming them, and much more. Fear, either of divine justice, or of human justice prevents many of us from following through with our worst instincts. Hence, fear is a necessary, useful, and powerful tool when used for the benefit of our society as a whole. It, unfortunately, is the key element in building the foundation of a peaceful and harmonious human society.
Therefore, until humanity advances to a stage where the drive to maintain a society existing in harmony with itself and its environment exceeds our drive to pursue our own personal and selfish interests, fear, the ultimate motivator, will (must), remain the driving force behind our society — just as it is today. However, we must also remain ever vigilant towards unscrupulous individuals and groups attempting to use our fears to control our beliefs, emotions and actions in order to advance their own selfish goals.
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