Fear of The Unknownby ilhaman

The Unknown

H.P. Lovecraft once wrote, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

Since the dawn of man, we have feared the unknown.  While we took steps outside the caves and gazed into the sun, we have taken steps to quantify our fears and rationalize them in some way.  The burning ball of fire came from a sun god, the wind from a weather witch, the sea had its own god, and so it goes with death, crops, fertility and everything else. Eventually, a majority of humans settled into monotheism and a belief in one god.  Because believing in so many was ridiculous, so it had to be just one.

Flash:

God. Or Gods.  Man creates in order simplify the biggest questions.  Why are we here?  What is our purpose?  What am I supposed to do?  

Humankind's fear of the unknown is overwhelmingly present throughout our history.

Flash Forward:

Late 1970's  The AIDs epidemic is just becoming news.  Fear spreads, "Gay Cancer" is spreading to junkies and those that conduct in unprotected sex.  Fear of a person with AIDs or HIV anywhere near your general vicinity is at an all time high.

Flash Forward:  Hate crimes and bullying against those that are different continue and happen far too often.


Flashback:

The South pre-, during, and post-Civl War:  The hate for the Afirican-American slaves/freemen and woman that continues into this era.  The transitional phases between property and a person have still yet to take effect in some people's mind till this day.

Flash:

Our morality in the most basic elements of human nature is to survive.  Ever try to drown yourself as a child in a pool.  Its impossible, we kick, float, and hold out till the surface comes. 

Flashback further:

Salem:  American paranoia is its purest form.  Something isn't right or part of the societal norm, we must extinguish it.  The paranoia spreads like a plague.  Some feel that paranoia is a foundational structure of the American Self.

Flash Forward:

The Red Scare/ McCarty Hearings:  The Communist will steal everything and corrupt American Rockwellian existence if we don't do something about it right now.  Hundreds Blacklisted, many killed, and a fear spreads.

Flash Forward:

9/11:  Terrorism will win if we let it.  We must stop it.  Nothing more tragic has happened on our soil. 

Flashback:

The Trail of Tears is the name given to the ethnic cleansing and forced relocation of Native Americans following the Indian Relocation Act of 1830.  Named for the tears shed by Indian mothers along the route.

Flash:

All the questions we ask, we create answers when none are given.  Yes, faith is powerful.  The most powerful of all faith comes from faith in one's self.  But the notion we are on this planet, living and breathing, is just too large a burden to bare, so we give the questions and answers to something else. 

Flashback:

The Crusades, argueably starting in 718 and stretching well into the 15th Century and still continuing in some capacity in the modern era.  Papal decree started a war for the Holy Land against the Islamic people and some experts say just to stop the spread of Islam.

Flash Forward:

Your daily life.  Something happens and it becomes so fucking catastrophic that you feel the need to remind yourself to breath because if you don't remind yourself to breath you're going to die.  It could be a job, relationship, or a death.  It could be anything you deem the complete utter destruction of what you knew to be, knew yourself to be, or whatever mental construct that gave your life meaning or purpose in recent memory.  Now all that is left is the unknown.  And that my friends, is scary as fuck.  You've spent X amount of effort, time, and more importantly self investment into creating yourself in this very specific way.  And now.  Now. It is gone.  You're left standing there as the life you've lived runs between your fingers like the sands of time.  Grasping and clutching at anything to try and repair the damage done.  Just let go.  Life wasn't built with nets at the bottom.  Or safety ropes.  Its nice to fall a little, you see all the things you were too busy to notice on the way up.

Flash Forward:

The unknown has a debilitating effect on the belief that it is okay to be  content.  Content can go fuck Monday Morning's ass with a chainsaw.  Complacency is the most horrible feeling we can have as humans. Time has past and we survive.  Our fear of the unknown will never conquer our will for survival.  We repair ourselves through reflection, friends, and the passage of time.  We mend our wounds and move forward.  We start over the parts of our lives we need to; in order to move on.  We find meaning and beauty in the things we never once look upon and for a bit of time we forget fear and we live again.