On fear

This is the closest I could find to a picture of non-existence.

(originally published Jan. 5, 2013)
I'd hazard a guess that this will be one of the most important notes I've written to date.  I've been waiting for a good opportunity to publish this note, as it's subject tends to ward people off, as it's not exactly something you'd discuss at dinner with those closest to you over the holidays.  After getting defriended on Facebook over "disrespecting" an individual through my pursuit of the truth, I thought this was as good as time as ever to wrap it up.
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This past term in my Power, Politics, and Policy in Education class, the professor invited her mentor and adviser to speak on the Mike Harris reforms in Ontario's education system during the early 2000's.  Her mentor mentioned how while legislation was being discussed at Queen's Park, she stormed into the galley decrying the reforms, ultimately demanding that they stop.  Near the end of the mentor's seminar, a concerned PhD student asked if, and how, her actions affected her job security as a teacher.  This student, in this instance, demonstrated a stronger concern for career and livelihood than for the children she'll serve in the future, which in our current society, is completely rational and understandable.  That student had every right to be afraid.

But why?
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The title says "fear," but in reality, this note will actually be about death.

Why is this?

Death is the source of all fear.  Many philosophers, psychologists, etc. have commented on and argued this reality.  Put in my own terms, as I outlined in the Highest Rational Moral Authority: An Allegory, fear stems from everyone's valuing their own lives above all other values: your life, and the lives of the people that compose your environment.  I'd argue that most values are indoctrinated but that arguably the most important values: the most intrinsically human, are innate.

As such, fear is also innate - but not necessarily a part of what it means to be a human being.  Many people throughout the ages have conquered their fear, and therefore the reality of their and their associates' deaths.

But some never do. People have long tried various methods to numb themselves to death and the fear associated with it.  From submitting to a belief or religion, drugs, to just ignoring death altogether, people have found ways to cope.
I often joke to my close friends that "everyone has to have their existential crisis eventually."  If you follow my notes, you'd know I had mine around grade 11.  When I say "existential crisis," I'm referring to the crisis individuals often have when confronted with the existential nature of reality.  It results in the acknowledgement and ultimate acceptance that we die, and we don't really know what happens after.  And further, that it's plausible we just no longer exist.  It's understandable why so many struggled and continue to struggle with the former reality.

But here's my point:  if death is the source of all fear, once you've conquered death, you've conquered fear as well.  Think about it, how can you fear anything if you're not afraid to die?  If you've accepted the reality of death?

Bertrand Russel often accused Christians of exercising a form of cowardice.  Why?  Well, in many ways religion attempts to fill the void associated with death; to dull many of the fears that stem from it.

But there's no need to be afraid.  Fear is a mechanism we developed evolutionarily to better ensure our survival.  We don't need fear to function anymore.  In fact I'd argue that fear is no longer an aid to our prosperity, but a force inhibiting humanity's ability to self-actualize.

I could be wrong, but it's something to think about.

I've quoted this passage before, but it's as inspiring as ever.  It's the last paragraph from Russel's essay 'Why I am Not a Christian':

"We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world -- its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it. The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men. When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings. We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time toward a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create."
(http://www.users.drew.edu/~jlenz/whynot.html)