Fear: The Most Powerful Emotion
There is a famous saying that love conquers all. But this is a foolish notion. Love is itself a derivative of a far more potent emotion.
Fear.
When you love someone, that is an example of fear, the fear of losing them.
When you hate someone, that is an example of fear, the fearing of losing to them.
When you own a gun, that is an example of fear, the fear of being killed.
When you climb a mountain and look down, that is an example of fear, the fear of falling, fatally.
When you are alive, that is an example of fear, a fear of death.
All things are born of fear. They fade in fear. Xehanort claimed it was darkness in Kingdom Hearts, Slaanesh claimed it was desire in Warhammer.
But as author HP Lovecraft said so eloquently, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
And you can see how that fear of the unknown destroys good, aids evil, and breeds wickedness and chaos. The abandoned Syrian Refugees, the paranoia and fear of Muslims and Jews, the hatred that blacks have for whites, these are all out of fear. Fear of the unknown.
I tend to preach about defeating hatred is to love, but how does one defeat fear? Fear is the derivative of both love and hate. Is it possible to defeat the key emotion that makes a human a human? The emotion that makes a being alive?
Is it possible that the meaning of life is to be afraid?
The more I look around at the world, especially as a response to all the too recent terror attacks in Paris, I wonder if Thomas Hobbes was right about Human nature.
I wonder as I feel the darkness consuming us all, if the reason we stop being afraid of monsters under the bed, is because we realize the monsters are actually all around us, and inside us.
I am beginning to winder if there is no point in hoping for a better future. How can we have one when fear controls us no matter what we achieve, or no matter what we create?