FEAR OF WHAT ?
by
Nicholas Pearson

How much fear there is around these mellow autumn days. How much fear there seems to be in the air since that fateful eleventh day of September when the collapse of the twin towers symbolised a new time in the making, a new time, a dangerous time and a different time for all of us. Where was that fear before that dreadful act took place and where had it been hiding all these prosperous years of peace we took so readily and so expansively for granted? How can it be that we could have imagined that the only reality was our happy, easy going, fearless material western life?

America seems now to be in the grip of that fear, if one might imagine that bellicosity is an understandable attempt to ward off intolerable feelings of fear. Fearful, the tribe collectively faces outwards and bangs its shield, it may even work for a bit but it's not the answer. Perhaps also, Americas deepening and unreasonable pessimism about its economy is a form of depression in response to a fear that seems to be external but has roots deeper by far. England is full of it too, but perhaps less so for all the historical reasons of our old acquaintance with the less happy side of life, whether it is the IRA or ancient memories of more testing times that lie buried in the genes of our island race.

To be sure the fear was always there. Is it not most surely part of who and what we are, an inescapable component of being alive. We cannot escape fear but we can, if we choose, avoid it on happy summer days when all seems right with the world and with luck we can perhaps avoid it for years. It is however always there lying fallow in the psyche waiting to come forth when its moment arrives. Now is that time.

When fear arrives in our lives it feels intolerable. Our first reaction is that it must be expunged at any cost. Somehow what we imagine to be the cause of our fear must be dealt with to restore the world back to its previous less threatening state. If however we live with fear constantly, what we imagine to be the cause of it simply cannot be removed, when for instance a war or even death threatens; then we may have to come to live with it whether we like it or not. In living with fear we find strangely that once we have ceased to try to get rid of it, but have begun to make a move towards accepting it for the simple reason that we cannot change it, something very strange happens. The fear begins to become as much a part of that which we are as our ability to be happy or angry or sad. It really is part of us. When we can make that move of acceptance we become larger because more is included in whom we consider ourselves to be; we have become more whole. We will then stand more secure upon the earth whatever our circumstances may be. It may even be we can be happier because in coming to terms with fear, we have come to terms with death and in the end in order to live well we just have to do that. That can never be just a theory for the simple reason that it is the only thing in the end we cannot escape.

Our western cultures have come to fear death. We are amazed that another culture can, seemingly almost casually, decide to die in a cause. We tend to forget that the Great War demanded behaviour from our race that was as surely suicidal as any Afghan bomber. We have come, through our prosperous years, to prize life so highly that it has become the cornerstone of our societies; life at any cost. It is not as if that point of view is in itself wrong but we need to see the other side. Fear however reintroduces us to the part of the equation we have conveniently left out. Death. Coming to terms with fear means coming to terms with death. Then we shall find that too is an essential part of living our lives fully as human beings who are truly alive.

If in the months and years ahead we can individually accept the fear that is in the air and not delude ourselves that we can escape it, our lives and dare I say it our societies, will be transformed. That is, after all, what happened in our previous wars, people remembered to help each other again; individuals were released from their isolation in the great adventure of being alive in a life-and-death endeavour together. If we dare let the fear in and make it part of who we are then we shall have nothing to fear. Let the western world, the truly wonderful western world with all its huge achievements of which it should be justly proud, embrace its current fear. Let it march through its fear. In so transforming its fear it may come to see why other societies might hate so much and what we must do about it.

©Nicholas Pearson, 2001