Fear is the mind-killer

[ornoth]

If you haven't noticed, there's been one common thread in the three journal entries I posted this weekend. In the first, I described the revelation I experienced when I set my fear and jealousy aside in my first truly polyamorous relationship, and how it enabled me to act selflessly and from a place of of love rather than fear in my current relationship. In the second, I criticized our culture where women fear men and treat every man as if he were a rapist. In my most recent post, I express my frustration with the fact that we've let our fears run rampant, leaving us vainly seeking affection in a culture where expressing affection is not acceptable behavior. If you haven't gotten it by now, the common thread is that people act out of fear, not love, and allow themselves to be self-destructively controlled by their own fears. Fear rules almost everything we do.

And yet, in this modern day and age, it is entirely likely that within our lifetimes we will identify the mechanisms in the brain which control our fears. For the first time ever, we will have the opportunity to be free of our fears through medical or pharmacological means. Without fear, we would be free of our insecurities, inhibitions, possessiveness, jealousy, anger, and vindictiveness.

Imagine for a moment what a person might be like if they weren't slaves to the constant, irrepressible fear and insecurity that pervades modern life. Wouldn't it be fascinating to study someone who was immune to fear? How would they interact with the world? For me in particular, I'd love to see how they would manage in our society where fear is the base assumption we all live under. What amazing simple, selfless acts might come as second nature to such a person?

But let's not stop there. Imagine a whole community of such people. How different their society would be! But in what ways? Would everyone be able to put their jealousy aside and celebrate their love's loves as I do? Would women stop treating men like assumed criminals? Would we finally be free to express our affection for one another without inhibition, and accept others' affection for what it is, without fear? How bizarre that world would seem to us, who think that living with fear somehow makes us more "sophisticated" than those who have overcome theirs. What would our world be like if we could eradicate fear as simply and effectively as we have polio?

And would we, the lonely, fearful ones, ever have the courage to give up our comfortable, well-known fears for such an innocent, brave new world? Think about it; it's a choice you may be actually called on to make sometime in a not too distant future...