I think it’s pretty interesting that fear seems to control a lot of our society.  Fear is used in the media for everything it seems…from who to vote for, what to think, new things coming to town, the reason for this that and the other thing.  Fear always seems to supply the motivation….I’ve known that fear was used as a method of control and motivation in our society, especially through media for quite some time, but what I didn’t realize is how it was used at all levels of society.

For example, if a boss is scared that they are going to lose their job or look bad because of those working under them, it always seems like they do their best to pass that fear along….the response to fear is so ingrained into some people that once the fear ball gets rolling, it keeps going and does all of the work for the person at the top.  Fear filters down until people are making up things and are afraid for their own jobs and reputations. 

Why do we let fear control so many aspects of our lives?

I heard someone the other day talk about how in our society today it’s almost necessary to build up walls to protect yourself from all of the liars and scams that come around today.  However, if we spend so much time trying to protect ourselves by blocking things from coming in, how will we ever take the risk that is necessary for trust?  If we don’t take the risks for trust, how can we ever expect to develop any kind of real relationship?

People are so scared of being hurt that they don’t want to risk the amazing feeling of trust.  Sometimes it seems like the fear of the  little bit of pain that you could experience really battles for control over the love and trust that you could have with a person.  If you never open yourself and take that risk than trust will never be available to you….that has to be the loneliest thing in the world for someone…not to have anyone to trust. 

I hope that most people can allow themselves for at least that one right person to open up to the experience of love and trust.  It would just make me sad to think of someone going their whole life without feeling those things.

I have written before about how people find security in a variety of things…for some people it’s a blanket, a community, a phone, locks, a relationship…it all depends on the person, but it seems to me that people don’t want to give up that security, no matter what it is….

We can see the resistance from the first moments of life in a baby’s cries, or in that of a grown woman crying nightly and staying with an abusive man because all she knows is in that relationship.  Or as I was reading today about church members not wanting to believe that the janitor murdered their own priest, even though he confessed to the act.  Not to mention that it doesn’t sound like it was just a quick act of rage, but a really bloody, violent murder where he repeatedly beat and stabbed the guy.  And yet because all of those people would have to think about a man like that being around their children at the school attached to the church and around them every week in church…they would rather just not allow themselves to believe it and live in denial. 

What is it about denial that makes some people feel so good?  I understand that venturing out can be a very risky and scary thing…but at the same time, not facing the facts can also lead to danger and heartache.  This murder for example, what if it was up to the people of that church and they simply didn’t want to believe it and let him come back to his job as janitor simply to avoid the thought that their community found in the church is not as safe and secure as they believed.  And then what if it happened again…maybe even to a child next time….

Now granted we dont’ know what motivated the murder…it sounds like there are some suspicious things that had been going on….but that’s still not a reason to take a close look at what is going on because you afraid to lose the security.

People tend to fight what they don’t understand…especially older people who are set in their ways, and already have their opinions on what certain words mean, certain theories, etc.  Watching some clips from the Daily Show that were shared with me, I realized once again how so many people form and express their opinions out of ignorance, or simply because they don’t want to see any change.  I’m not saying that they are right or wrong, but explanations that have nothing to do with the topic of health care, which was being discussed with expressions like, “we should all fear Obama” don’t really inspire me with confidence that these people have actually studied and thought about the topic at hand…instead it makes me think that they have simply decided that they don’t like it because some media personality has told them that it’s a bad idea, or because they don’t want to see things change….maybe my perception is wrong…but none the less it is what it looks like to me.  I don’t understand why so many people keep their pre-perceived information or what the media tells them to believe without being open to new evidence, or arguments about the topic that they are working so hard to fight without any facts.  The only arguments I have heard against Obama’s new health program plan do not have any facts to back them up…just phrases that are designed to scare people, as Jon Stewart’smock experts so nicely demonstrate.  I have a friend who says that people should always write down their logic on paper and read it out lout to see if it still makes sense.  I think this is a good policy since I think that as humans we have a great ability to justify all sorts of things in our own minds….but then when we take a step back and look at the logic behind our own thoughts, we realize that we may have missed a few things as our thought process made it’s mental leaps and went spinning through all of the thoughts on the topic.  I think that the evidence of a great mind is in that they can realize their own fallacies in logic. 

(If you’re interested in the clips that spurred these thougths for me you can find them with the link:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/jon-stewart-vs-town-hall_n_256272.html )

I don’t understand what makes our society fear change so much?  What is so bad about moving forward in our way of living?  What is so wrong with accepting that there is a new administration and although you may not agree with everything they come up with, it doesn’t mean that everything they come up with is automatically wrong simply because there are one or two things that you do not agree with.  I don’t know why people feel that they cannot be wrong, is it really that hard to admit when you realize that someone has evidence to prove you wrong?  I don’t understand why we have made that a bad thing in our society.  I would think that we would try to get people to grow from experiences like that, instead of making them feel that they need to fight for their honor, or something like that; that is how people end up making stupid arguments that only they think sound logical, and other people who wont give up the same misconceptions.

I started thinking about all of the types of news that people get every day:  personal news from family and friends, good and bad; news from work, good and bad, urgent or casual; media news on a city, state, nation, or world level, good or bad, happy or sad……people learn bits of news every day, and I think that every one of those pieces effects us, maybe in the smallest of ways, but I think that it effects us in the long run of things.  Good news builds and builds and makes a person feel good, but the same is with sad or stressful news in that it builds and builds until it starts to wear on a person. 

Some people take bits that they learn about life in stride and just deal with things as they come, try not to let it in if it’s negative, and are sometimes quite successful, but it is still now a reality in their life, whatever that news is.  While others take everything that they learn on a very emotional level, they can’t help but let the emotions overwhelm them sometimes; a lot of the time it’s a conscious effort to keep logic ahead of emotion when they learn of news in life. 

Some news reminds you how beautiful life can be:  falling in love, knowing that you have found the love of your life, seeing a new baby born, a sunset on the beach, children laughing, the view from a mountain top.  Other things remind you of how much life can hurt and how ugly it can be:  death of a younger person, natural disasters destroying homes and killing many, children lost or crying, someone you know becoming ill, etc. 

So, there will always be good news and bad news as long as we have emotions we are going to respond to those things.  It’s part of being of the human race I suppose, but sometimes it can really weigh on a person, I suppose that’s why we need to remember the good things that we have in life and always deal with what comes as best we can. We need to try and not leave ourselves vulnerable to letting the bad, stressful, or sad news build on our hearts or minds.

Black and White

Gray…Hazy fog moves in

Gathering at the bottom of the ravine

Nothing in sight but mist

Person can’t see, comprehend

A glance through one eye

Squinting trying to see

Turn around and look

Life is made of middle ground, gray haze

The vibrant colors of day spill out in the sunrise

The colors concealed as darkness falls

Shadows of the world move in

The unknown is revealed

 What makes people paranoid about what they don’t know, why do we hesitate for opportunities to experience new things?  What is it that intimidates us?  Makes us wait and see?  What makes people wait to see someone else go first?  Why are we afraid of what we don’t know…we of course referring to our society in general….  Why does our society fear what could be looked at as exciting and new..instead so many push for traditional and sticking with what has been done in the past.  Our society seems to only want what it can know and understand, it trains people to believe that anything different from the standards set forth by the majority is wrong.  The only thing I can see this doing is making people hide who they really are so that they are not seen as different, or “wrong.”  What is the logic behind making people appear to be “normal” so that you can feel like you are in control when really you are only making more unknown variables, because now you don’t know who is really following protocol and who is just putting on a face for society to see.

The fear and ignorance of the unknown is what controls our society…..

At the moment it is the swine flu; everyone is so concerned about washing their hands, who has been where on what trip, etc….when in reality if people look at all of the actual medical articles instead of all of the propaganda of the press they would find out that this swine flu is no more dangerous than the normal flu, that people forget is still killing people every year but people simply don’t notice it any more.  The swine flu is something new to scare the masses with, something new to hold some type of control and attention of the people. 

Generally people look for guidance when they can’t figure out a situation on their own….Which is why all of the politicians are coming out with this plan or that plan and everything else to try and convince people of what to do in the situation.  The only thing more powerful than the natural fear of the unknown is the ignorance that makes all of this the unknown and the problem that we have with people trusting what the media has to say instead of investigating something themselves. 

The government uses the media to trap people in their own ignorance…they say things in an immediate, urgent, and important way:  things like, “we have raised the alert level to level four”.  That sounds really serious when you see it on every news station along with video of everyone in Mexico walking around town with a mask on, a mask which by the way is not going to do hardly any good except keep people from sneezing and/or coughing on each other.  Anyways, what does the average person know about alert levels.  Come to find out it is only a six step process, but I doubt most people take the time to figure that out.  There could be only four levels, there could be a hundred levels, it wouldn’t matter because the majority of people know that they heard it on the news and it sounds serious.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” -Maryanne Williamson

I think that there is a lot to this quote.  I first heard this quote on the movie, Coach Carter and I heard it on the movie, Akeelah and the Beejust last night.  There must be some purpose to this quote becoming mainstream in our culture right now.  I think that it is a very powerful statement to where our culture is heading.  I think that a lot of our younger generation does not want to stand out from the crowd.  In my experience the teenage generation of today wants to be given things and don’t know much about earning what they have or what they want.  Kids blaming parents; students blaming teachers; when do we begin to hold the individual responsible, or better yet, when do we begin to hold ourselves responsible.  I think that responsibility is a thing that is dwindling in our society. 

Why aren’t we encouraging everyone to do the best they can instead of just enough to get by?  Why can’t we be happy for those around us that are better at something?  In my opinion, we should be embracing ourselves as well as those around us:  similarities, differences, perks, and flaws.  What is wrong with standing out?  Why does that mean you cannot still belong? 

I think it’s wrong that we are teaching our younger generations not to do all that they can do to improve themselves…we are teaching them to go with the way things are and do enough to get by….why????  What is a person entitled to if they don’t work for it just as they are???  If you can’t be yourself, and let yourself shine, you will never really know yourself or be happy….

However, I’m sure that some people would argue that you have to do what you have to do in order to make a life for yourself….and I guess that is where you either find a balance where you can do what you need to do as yourself…or you have to decide which is more important to you…being yourself or moving further in life as a member of the crowd. 

I think the quote is a wise one, I don’t think there is anything wrong with intimidating the people around you…I think that the people around you should then take it as a challenge to shine brighter themselves instead of knocking you down to their level.  Don’t be afraid to be yourself……and certainly don’t be afraid to be great.