Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Sometimes I’ll be watching something and a thought will occur to me and it will stick in my mind and lead me into a meditation on a more global idea that remains with me as I try to puzzle it out. A train of thought set off this week was a TV program in which a person had to deal with aging and it was clear that their fear of their own mortality that controlled their actions. The program is forgotten and unimportant in this piece, but it did start me spending much time extrapolating the implications from that situation. This represents the rude beginnings of a theory I’ve developed, sans research, on why many people respond the way they do to the world, especially in a sociopolitical sense. Feel free to attack it, because it is merely a product of my tangled thought processes and in truth I don’t even know if it is particularly original, or the result of my synthesis of much I’ve learned and read through the years.
Noticeable human development began at least a million years ago in an apelike creature that was small and relatively weak, considering the predatory creatures that surrounded it. Life was a tricky proposition for that creature and the act of merely staying alive consumed its time. I would think that almost all of its day was spent in a state of fear, causing adrenalin rushes and hyper sensitivity to its environment. Those with the most fear, sensitivity and intelligence survived enough to pass on their genes to the coming generations, thus continuing the evolutionary cycle. As time and evolution passed enormous changes in brain size and other factors turned this fragile being into an omnivore predator that mastered the food chain. Yet still remaining were the instincts of fear and hyper-vigilance, since life even at the top of the food chain remained brutal and short. Those instincts protected us well until a next evolutionary step that took us to a whole new level, leaving us as unquestioned masters of life on this planet. That step is what some are calling a social evolutionary process. When humans began to band together into larger groups their place in the world increased exponentially. This “social evolution” changed the Earth and continues today, but nevertheless we are still primarily ruled by fear and by hyper-vigilance. Let me take you where this thought has led me and perhaps you can show me the flaws in my nascent “theory” and provide me with respite from its repetition in my brain.
Fear of death has to be a common instinct to almost all species, but it is of particular importance to humans because of our understanding that we all will die. All life is a struggle for survival and that struggle concludes with death. The idea of our own non-existence is on some level a frightening one for even the most stoic among us. As human societies became more complex this fear of death had to be dealt with or social collapse would surely follow. On the Savannahs of Africa, hunters in small packs tracked deadly game for meat. Despite the organization of a hunt, any individual was risking their life for the good of their social group, as well as the filling of their stomach. In small social units this risk was worth it, because everyone’s life was at stake. As these small social units became tribes though, we can assume that there were those who sought to escape the danger for the sake of their own safety. I think that this led to the rudimentary beginnings of religion as a means to coerce a larger social group into working together for the common goal of survival. As the complexity of societies increased philosophy developed as an offshoot of religion and from philosophy came political and economic ideas that branched into their own kind of philosophical thought.
The germ of this idea began in a book recommended to me by our regular contributor Blouise and I think one or two others. The book is: “The Social Conquest of Earth” by the distinguished scientist Edward O. Wilson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson In the book Professor Wilson demonstrates his belief that in addition to the biological evolution of species, there have been in a few species an advanced “social evolution” that has inextricably entwined with biological evolution, to take these species to even greater levels of success in the evolutionary struggle. The other species which he talks of are insects, such as Ants, Termites and Bees that have found long term success and growth due to evolving into creatures with complex social structures. I don’t have the scientific expertise, or the insight to do this book justice, but if nothing comes of your reading here other than reading this book, then it will be a success, because Wilson presents a compelling argument.
As a scientist Professor Wilson looks at human behavior from the perspective of the species as a whole, as a retired psychotherapist my interest is more in how people encounter this confusing knowledge, the effect of it on their life and their individual reactions to it. My experience is that there are a large percentage of human beings that live their lives in a constant state of anxiety, fear and dread that lurks below the surface of their conscious mind. The evolutionary factor that has caused the defense mechanism of fear to be so strong in us, certainly has kept us viable as a species, yet in the social context that Professor Wilson speaks of, it can also carry within us the seeds of our extinction. I think that this is apparent if we look at some of the foibles of modern human life and also extrapolate how the interactions of our basic human fears, with the complexities of modern existence have created the danger of our own self-destruction.
In a small social unit of perhaps up to 25 people, the leader was the physically strongest individual and fear of death via the hunt, was overcome by fear of punishment from the leader. The leader of let’s say 100 people would have more difficulty in controlling the group through fear and so developed hierarchical social structure. This was nothing new in evolution as we can see from the hierarchies in the society of Apes and Monkeys our close evolutionary relatives. However, as best as science can currently tell the average 5 year old human is as smart as, or smarter than any of these simians, so we can assume the hierarchical structure was a natural result of social evolutionary processes, limited by the capacity of intelligence and communication. Among most species the notion of territoriality seems a result of adapting to the surrounding environment. Even with plentiful game the struggle for food was constant, the idea of battling between groups of the same species competing for food and water was a simple affair among pack animals, overcoming the individual’s fear of death. If one did not fight the other pack for survival, one would either die, or have to run away alone. When the perception increases to the level of humans, the options for actions and foresight of possible consequences are such that more is needed to overcome the fear of dying.
The problem on this level of evolution for humans is that environments change over time and with it the need to adapt to changing circumstance. A greater bond was needed to grow and expand the tribal experience. In my opinion that bond was religion. On one hand religion worked to calm the fear of death and on the other it worked to explain the confusing nature of life itself. As religion evolved it also worked hand in glove (generally) with the hierarchy to maintain its power within the expanding societal group. It gave “rules” to govern the way people should live within their larger social group and it was justification for fearing and opposing other social groups offering competition for resources. On the beginnings of religion evidence has been found dating religious symbols back to about 30,000 BCE. Currently Archaeologists place the earliest known development of human societal history, be it Sumer or Egypt at about 5,000 years ago. My own suspicions are that in the years to come they will discover far older roots of human civilization. In postulating the suddenly blossoming of Sumer and then Egypt, from simple farming society to monument building civilized empires, represent too great a leap, without intervening steps currently unknown.
In those two civilizations, that have left us written records, we see religion working in tandem with the political hierarchy to build great structures through harnessing the manpower of the entire people. The monuments in Sumer were temples to the Gods and in Egypt served as tombs for the Pharaohs, who were considered Gods. From those early beginnings the complexities of the interactions evolved to the extent that brings us to the present day. A world where humanity has the tools to destroy itself and where our fears are exploited to control us, either through religion, politics, xenophobia or a mixture of all of these elements.
In the end though, shorn of the complexity of “isms”, human societies are primarily governed by fear of death and its complementary aspect fear of the “other”. Structurally, from a hierarchical standpoint, we are little different than the society of the Great Apes and on top of that structure our leaders are similar to the “grey-backs” that rule our evolutionary “cousins”. For America the defining moment of this 21st Century has been 9/11. The fear engendered by that terrorist act was engineered into two wars and into a drastic change in government power. A majority of the American people were so frightened by that event that they willingly acceded to these changes in their governance and embraced activity, such as torture, to keep their inner fears at bay.
In my own lifetime, approaching 70 years, the changes in the world around me have been phenomenal and most times I spend struggling to keep up with these changes. For those who watched the “speculative” Star Trek in 1966 their handheld computer communicators have become our now ubiquitous cell phones. Much of the Science Fiction I read in the 50’s and 60’s have become if not reality, strong theoretical possibilities. Forget technology though. The social changes are also quite remarkably startling. The attitudes towards race, sexuality, gender and ethnicity while not free from prejudice and stigma have certainly come a long way towards that goal. It requires no great insight to understand that for many these “changes”, that have “rocked” their world, have led to heightened anxiety and the fear that drives that anxiety. It is no coincidence that the recurrence of s strong religious fundamentalist strain developed in the 60’s when all over the world society’s had their stability shaken by a youth unwilling to accept their predestined role. Then too, the experience of psychedelic drugs tends to disconnect one somewhat from the standard definitions of reality. For many the dislocation was such that they grasped onto religious faith as a rock to cling to as the tidal wave of social change threatened their emotional grounding. We see in America the result of many of our people overcome by fear, which to my mind is nurtured by the elite that rules us and through that fear they are willing to take extraordinary measures to give them some sense of comfort that they are safe from random death. That this is illusory is quite beside the point. The reality is that each of us faces death daily from completely mundane causes. The likelihood of a terrorist act, a school shooting, or being murdered in our beds, is infinitesimally smaller than a car accident, illness or falling off a bike. For all the fear generated our lives are so much safer now than they ever have been in all of human history. The anxiety and fear though that many live in as their constant emotional state paradoxically decreases our safety and increases the possibility of human self-destruction.
With that long explanatory preamble I finally get to the nub of my thinking this week. While fear is a human necessity for survival, as I well know, it can also be a self defeating instinct. While fear can manifest itself in response to an immediately perceived danger which is needed protection, it can also manifest itself into debilitating anxiety which can lead to inappropriate responses to our external environment. One definition of anxiety that I like is by Fritz Perls and states: “Anxiety is the difference between now and then”. The anxious individual is afraid of some future action perceived, rather than some imminent danger. Paranoia is a form of anxiety and the response by the paranoid can turn deadly. To my mind much of the response to 9/11 came from anxiety rather than reality. Remember the non-existent “weapons of mass destruction”?
The human condition today is that our lives are ruled by fear in the form of irrational anxiety. Due to it the collective “we” tries to react to “threats” that are more perceived than real. Our leaders, many of whom suffer from anxiety themselves, nevertheless exploit it in us for their own personal gain and indeed “leaders” always have. The trappings of civilization in the form of religions, philosophies economic and political systems are chimeras that disguise the reality, which is many of us are ruled by our fears/anxieties and thus the necessary survival instinct of fear, may in the end lead to our self destruction. I spent a good bit of this week ruminating on this, was it worth it, or just a product of my own anxiety?
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Ralph,
You didn’t say nothin’ about them leftists. Your meds kick in?
I love Mike ‘S … theory:
This old house of fear …
Nick you say, “Regarding death, Woody Allen and Albert Brooks have made a lot of money expressing their neurotic fear of death.” That’s incorrect. If their movies only involved the expression of their own neuroses and anxieties, they wouldn’t make a dime between them. Rather they have made a lot of money–in part–expressing the PUBLIC’s fear of death, fear of failure, fear of humiliation, etc. and by offering creative solutions to them. Allen and Brooks deserve much more credit than you give them.
On the overall topic of the fear of death, I believe that Sigmund Freud’s original theories about it still hold. Fear of death or “thanatophobia” as he called it is actually a disguise for deeper concerns:
“Our own death is indeed quite unimaginable, and whenever we make the attempt to imagine it we . . . really survive as spectators. . . . At bottom nobody believes in his own death, or to put the same thing in a different way, in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality.” Freud, Sigmund. “Thoughts for the Times on War and Death.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 4. London: Hogarth Press, 1953, pp. 304–305
According to Freud, when people express death-related fears, they are actually trying to deal with unresolved childhood conflicts that they cannot bring themselves to admit, acknowledge, or even discuss openly.
Terrorists are everywhere, Everywhere! Code Orange ! Code Orange !
The Canadians handled public menaces like this quite well. Ya’ll just got to get the right cop to handle the situation.
Regarding death, Woody Allen and Albert Brooks have made a lot of money expressing their neurotic fear of death.
There is a basic difference between danger and fear. Danger is real, and often unpredictable. It is something over which we have little, often no control. Fear is something over which we have more control, but not total. I have discussed the book, The Gift of Fear, a great graduation gift for kids, particularly young women. It details how we should not ignore real fear, and how we should react to it. Of course, the issue here is the manipulation of fear. It is my belief the biggest culprit is media, not government. Although there is a very unhealthy alliance between the two on this, and other topics.
Fear sells!! It sells big time. When I taught a high school current event class I had students analyze network news every evening, each time focusing on specific topics. These kids were amazed when the 3 networks had virtually the same stories in the same order. I would also ask them to note stories w/ this topic of fear. I would have them count words like “crisis”[sometimes used 10-12 times in one broadcast]. This was pre-9/11. I would also have them keep track of the advertisers, mostly Big Pharma; incredibly sometimes selling anti-anxiety/ anitidepressant drugs to medicate this fear they’re sponsoring. The Weather Channel sells fear big time. They cause people who are reasonably intelligent to go out and buy all kinds of supplies for a freakn’ snow storm. Snow storms have names now, you know..just like hurricanes. What horseshit! Target, Walmart, Home Depot, supermarkets, are happy to sponsor this programming and reap the rewards of that fear when folks come to buy batteries, lanterns, food, water, etc..
When the great comedian, Chris Rock, was asked how he could make such astute observations he said he was just born that way, and the skill was reinforced by his parents. However, when he said, “It’s hell often times. Because if ignorance is bliss, then tell me what the opposite is!” That being when you see all the horseshit in people, and our culture, it is the opposite of bliss, it’s hell.
Finally, fear and anger can be great motivators, but only in the short term. I have known coaches who would create a bunker mentality to motivate their team. “It’s us against the world.” Great short term results, but they always implode. Our pols almost all motivate via fear or anger. When you find a pol, I don’t give a shit what party, who eschews this tactic, vote for him/her. They’re the real deal.
I don’t think the evolutionary story is that simple. Many primitive people reveled in battles, and life was much more of a commodity. Fear of death is a secondary effect that only applies to the human capable of extrapolating to an indefinite future; it is not certain other animals can even do that.
I say “secondary” because certainly animals feel fear, but it is not fear of a death they do not even comprehend, it is more like our fear of pain or injury or capture. Or fear of fire. Even then, for both them and us, other emotions are more primary and can override fear (including our fear of death). Rage is one, protectionism is another. Dogs, for example, have been known to run through blazes to reach a human child they regard as a pup; dogs that could have escaped a burning house via a pet door have remained in the house, despite burns, to wake their owner.
In humans, rage trumps a fear of death, and death is knowingly risked in battle to save friends. As we saw recently at both the Giffords shooting and the theater shooting, in times of crisis men will purposely block bullets with their body (and die) to protect a woman they love. I have read true stories of parents in accidents and natural disasters choosing actions they knew would kill them in order to save their child.
I agree that religion is all about denying death (the most common thread being that you don’t really die, you get reincarnated, or exist on another plane, or become a spirit, etc.)
And I agree that there is far too much fear out there; but I do not think it is a fear of death, per se, but a fear of the end of the familiar and relatively safe, soft life most of us lead and want for our children; a fear of the inexorable stress of constant bombings we see elsewhere in the world (like Israel). Perhaps it is only in small part a personal fear of dying, and in large part a fear of living in fear, the constant anxiety of bad news and injuries and losses of loved ones.
That may sound like a quibble, but I think it is two different things.
I present myself as an example. As an atheist since childhood, I have long accepted my death and oblivion, but what I truly fear most about my death is knowing how my friends and family would take it. And what I truly fear about terrorist attacks is not ME being killed in one, but the devastation of having the lives of those I love cut short, particularly children.
I do not fear physical pain; I do not fear death or non-existence.
The pains I fear are anguish and grief.
An afterthought. There is a difference between being strong and being foolhardy. No point in tickling the tail of a dragon, but cowering in caves afraid to come out because a dragon might be out there is no way to live.
Mike,
Great topic. I will respond later. I am trying to pare my comment down to 25,000 words or less. Living in fear is not productive. Fear is a learned response, for the most part. There is normal fear, and then there is externally generated fear. Everyone has an aversion to things like getting burned on a hot stove or falling off something high enough to get hurt or killed.
Sadly, our government and Big Business has seen fit to use the normal fear response built into all of us as a springboard for social control and manipulation. Governments have been doing it forever, but the deliberate use of fear is relatively new. If you go back and watch old newsreels of Londoners during the Blitz, you see them going about their business, picking their way through the rubble in the street as they go to work, the market, or down to a pub for a pint before going home. I am old enough to listen to Edward R. Murrow broadcasting from rooftops and the steps of public buildings. In the background, you can hear antiaircraft artillery pounding away, and explosions from the falling bombs. Where was the fear? Where were the TSA people patting down citizens? No one had color-coded alerts, or told to collect tape to put on windows or doors. Now, the mantra is, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
When my youngest was still in school, the school cancelled a two day trip to Colonial Williamsburg because of an orange color alert. We know now that fear alert was completely manufactured due to political pressures and the Bush administration needed a distraction.
I am damn sick and tired of being told to be afraid. Of anything. I will be back with some more thoughts later, but in the meantime I leave you with the best news reporter who ever lived, broadcasting from London. Does he sound afraid? Do the people sound afraid? That is how you win a war, not cowering like sheeple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KLQxtDOkZA
I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew by Dr. Seuss should be required reading by everyone who feels afraid due to some ginned up phony crisis by the government or big business. Take a lesson from Edward R. Murrow.
Very nice. What happens when you recognize all of that, and make the next step of not giving in to it all, but watching as the general populace does give in? That is where neighbordave resides. But, I seem to be naturally ever vigilant.
MS … I totally resonate with the the idea that people let fear and 1 million year old evolution ( lookup amygdala ) control their lives. I am striving for sophont-hood and someday sophont2. I appreciate your thoughts,
google ==> 777sophont adding a link to MS
Best
I totally resonate with the the idea that people let fear and 1 million years of evolution ( see amygdala ) control their lives. I am striving for sophont-hood and someday sophont2. Google 777sophont2
Best
Mike S,
Interesting article. However, I think it would have been more appropriate to define FEAR, (instead of assuming that we are all on the same intellectual level that you, OS, Gene, Prof JT, are on):
Fear, as defined by wikipedia,:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear
“Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat which causes entities to quickly pull far away from it and usually hide. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. In short, fear is the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it (also known as the fight-or-flight response) but in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) a freeze or paralysis response is possible. Some psychologists such as John B. Watson, Robert Plutchik, and Paul Ekman have suggested that there is only a small set of basic or innate emotions and that fear is one of them. This hypothesized set includes such emotions as joy, sadness, fright, dread, horror, panic, anxiety, acute stress reaction and anger. Fear should be distinguished from the emotion anxiety, which typically occurs without any certain or immediate external threat.”
“Fear is frequently related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is the result of threats which are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable.[1] It is worth noting that fear almost always relates to future events, such as worsening of a situation, or continuation of a situation that is unacceptable. Fear can also be an instant reaction to something presently happening. All people have an instinctual response to potential danger, which is in fact important to the survival of all species. The reactions elicited from fear are seen through advantages in evolution.[2] Fear can be a manipulating and controlling factor in an individual’s life”
With this definition of fear, it seems like it is just another human emotion, elicited during certain human events regarding situations, circumstances, etc in our lives. Fear, like other emotions, having the potential to become the dominant emotion when circumstances of life seem beyond our control. However, we do have psychological and psychiatrical thearpies and medications for whenever we feel that we cannot control our emotions?
Therefore, is our nation being governed by an emotion of fear in order to socially control the 310+ million people in the US and the 5.75 billion people worldwide? How do you socially control more than 6 billion people, while recognizing and utilizing the individual talents or gifts by each and every human being? Do we utilize Charles Darwin’s Social Darwinism/Survival of the Fittest to create policies where the strongest will rise to the top, while the weakest will stay at the bottom or in the middle?
This is Part 1 to your ‘thesis’, I will be back with Part 2 (maybe).
Very intriguing. I often wrastle with these “seeds of an idea” myself. Are you familiar with Ernest Becker’s work The Denial of Death? It’s been several decades since I’ve read it, but much of what you are talking about are along the lines of his thesis presented in this work. Might assist in fine tuning what you have presented thus far. Complex ideas you put out here, but presented in really cohesive fashion.
anonymously posted 1, May 11, 2013 at 12:12 pm
While it’s easy to say and sometimes difficult to implement, I love the sentiment:
http://bobbyjamsjamjar.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/09-be-fearless1.jpg
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Sweet Dirty Paws …
You touched on an important topic when you linked religion and political hierarchy in ancient civilizations. I believe it is much the same now. I must state that I am a non-believer, but even believers must see the function of politics and religion working together to try to influence great numbers of people. Many, both in the media and in general, tend to notice it in the Middle East, while they don’t see the exact same thing happening here. I know I’m influenced by the rise of the evangelicals, and that not all religions are as entrenched in politics, but I see far too much evidence of trying to dumb down the masses and prevent “unhelpful” ideas from taking root.
The Politics of Fear in America: A Nation at War with Itself
By John W. Whitehead
October 01, 2012
“Fear is the foundation of most governments.” – John Adams
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_politics_of_fear_in_america_a_nation_at_war_with_itself
Excerpt:
These police exercises are the result of government policies engineered to maximize fear and paranoia. Yet they are only possible because of the acquiescence of the American people to all government programs relating to “security” since 9/11. Despite the fact that violent crime rates are low, and terrorist attacks are radically unlikely (in fact, one is more likely to die in a car wreck or be struck by lightning than be killed by a terrorist), we are seeing government agencies “protecting” us by harassing, arresting, and sometimes killing our friends and neighbors, all in the name of security. This is the inertia of government bureaucracy. Created during moments of fear, such agencies and the corporate entities that benefit from them always resist change once a citizenry gathers their senses and demands are made for the restoration of free government.
Thus, fear is the root of the problem. The only thing which will improve our present condition is the taming of our fear. We must act on courage. Courage to think differently, speak loudly, and challenge directly the systems which we know to be unjust. Voting will do precious little to circumvent the politics of fear which Democrats and Republicans use to justify their attacks on our personal liberties. As author Mark Vernon has noted, “…the politics of fear plays on an assumption that people cannot bear the uncertainties associated with [risk]. Politics then becomes a question of who can better deliver an illusion of control.”
While it’s easy to say and sometimes difficult to implement, I love the sentiment:
http://bobbyjamsjamjar.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/09-be-fearless1.jpg
I like the look of the format you selected Mike.
“I think that this is apparent if we look at some of the foibles of modern human life and also extrapolate how the interactions of our basic human fears, with the complexities of modern existence have created the danger of our own self-destruction.”
Yes, yesterday I heard that we reached a dangerous milestone, 400 ppm of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. A foreboding number.
“In those two civilizations, that have left us written records, we see religion working in tandem with the political hierarchy to build great structures through harnessing the manpower of the entire people … A world where humanity has the tools to destroy itself and where our fears are exploited to control us, either through religion, politics, xenophobia or a mixture of all of these elements … In the end though, shorn of the complexity of “isms”, human societies are primarily governed by fear of death and its complementary aspect fear of the “other”. ”
Our structures now are influenced by fossil fuel use, in large part as a result of decisions of Winston Churchill and Rockefeller’s oil companies (“Grey Backs”). The irony is that this was a result of a religious belief in the ultimate war and perhaps the ultimate death of civilization (The Universal Smedley).
“The trappings of civilization in the form of religions, philosophies economic and political systems are chimeras that disguise the reality, which is many of us are ruled by our fears/anxieties and thus the necessary survival instinct of fear, may in the end lead to our self destruction.”
The self-destruction of civilization by civilization has been contemplated by others, as you have done today.
Your analysis is in the same ball park as others who have done so:
“I spent a good bit of this week ruminating on this, was it worth it, or just a product of my own anxiety?”
That is the question for civilization too, it is just that if an individual does not get it and properly adjust the consequences are not the same as they are if civilization does not get it.
We must think about it seriously sometimes … anxiety or not … that is what is most useful in your post today IMO.