The Anatomy of Collective Fear

Collective fear is really a powerful emotion. It holds us as well as its invisible grip and pushes justice and fairness out of its way like a growing snowball rolling down a steep hill. It really is an insidious serpent that silently enters our bedrooms and creeps into our unsuspecting minds with paralyzing poison in its fangs. It makes us crawl into our shells and close our eyes to pain and insult. It prevents a good-hearted colleague from defending an unpopular individual at a workplace and enables ruthless dictators to stay in power for many years. It hovers over schools, sports teams and societies, looking for the next group which will let it sneak in.

Once fear has secured its place, it starts spreading its disease with the same proven method it has used for centuries. It plants a growing seed of apprehension in our minds and convinces us to believe that any deviation from the behavior of the majority hurts our standing in the group, or in the worst scenario, puts our lives in peril. It makes us accept irrationality and tolerate unfairness with regard to self-preservation. It does make us raise our supporting hands in front of a madman and forces us to look away when we should stand up and defend the weak. It makes us watch a bully beat up our friend, also it allows rotten governments to terrorize their citizens with impunity. It creates ten strong men fear one weak soul with a gun. It causes our bodies to do something in grave contradiction with the thoughts we carry in our minds. It turns us into cowards.

Collective fear has a great ability to transform itself into a spell that engulfs people under its ever-thickening thundercloud. The air in its vicinity grows so heavy with worry and paranoia that dispersing it becomes extremely difficult for a person who wants to break free. Worries grows stronger every time a new person joins its ranks and stopping it becomes more and more difficult each second we let it march forward. We hesitate and miss our chance to kill it when it's still weak. We watch the point of no return passing with our idle eyes and accept the sad reality: Fear has won and the powers driving it come in control.

The dark and pulsing heart of collective fear is very strong. It paralyzes us and suffocates the rationality that is trying to talk sense to us. Its great binding powers keep us from taking action even if we want to see change and justice happen. You want to be better but are too afraid to accomplish anything without the reassurance that others will need our side and not turn against us. We watch things deteriorate and our fellow people suffer, but we neglect to act. We let fear hold us down and bury our will to operate and fight. We have been blinded by the powerful spell that uses human anxiety for fuel to expand its destructive grasp. When that spell takes over many people, it becomes more powerful than hope. Hope is pushed away for the sake of individual survival. This is the day when all progress stops, and evil gets control.

The evil doesn't remain in power forever, nonetheless it is really a formidable enemy. It'll only be defeated when collective hope starts bombarding its heavy fortress with millions of little arrows. The fight starts slowly with a few exceptional souls and requires the will to win or lose everything. The courageous ones raise their heads, but even they hesitate once the bells of terror ring loudly within their ears. They will have seen what goes on to the people who try to stand up contrary to the mighty fear. They understand that any support they will have is a thin veil of smoke in the air that will vanish if a good hint of danger is detected. The power required to win the fight will there be, but it can only just be harnessed if people get together simultaneously. But they are too scared to do it. The need to fight is strong only behind closed doors and closed minds, no one can be certain if it's real because fear keeps their lips tightly shut. People whisper, however they don't make promises. They wink and nod approvingly, but turn away once the time involves make true commitments. They want to join the ranks of justice, but when fear scolds them, they turn against one another and say they have nothing in connection with the people who dared to challenge it. They betray friends and deceive their neighbors. They serve the king fear since it is still more powerful than hope. They would like to play safe and wait just a little longer - see if hope has a real potential for winning.

It takes a lot of guts and determination to liberate from the spell of fear. The initial ones who take the chance of losing everything are the true heroes. They deserve the real praise and respect. We who join them later aren't the people who make change happen or who make sure that justice wins. We have been just sheep following a giants - even if we are the required part of any effective change. We have been the hesitant ones who wait until we realize that it's safe to go out. We watch the problem develop from far away and once there is a hole in the spell, and the air flows in, we magically find guts too. The dominoes start falling and we wake up. We look into the mirror and have ourselves: Why on the planet did we behave like this? Why? Because we were afraid.

Hi,

I'm J. read more , the author of 22 Inches of Rain. It is a book about life and its little mysteries.

Cheers,

Jmax