If Fear Is a Factor In The Breeding Of Intolerance, Where Do You Suppose It Comes From? What Is There To Fear?

Question

Your opinions??

Elaborate if you will please. Thank you.

If you elaborated on this in my previous question, feel free to just pass this on by.

My apologies...I wasn't getting the answers I wanted in my previous question, and then they just rolled right in.

Answer 1

Mav think fear comes from many places, but mostly from our own insecurities.
Mav think we fear what we don't know. Mav think if we don't know, we believe what we are told and much of what we are told may not be true and our imaginations go wild.

Answer 2

Fear comes from nurture, not nature. There is no fear of the unknown for there is nothing known to fear. Children are fearless until either an actual experience occurs to them or they witness someone else's experience. At that point, all other experiences become known and can begin to breed fear even if the situation is only merely similar to one previously experienced.

The main root of anger is pain, not fear. Pain is felt through a hurtful experience. Revenge is done out of anger and there is no root of fear there. Therefore, fear does not breed intolerance either.

Nurturing breeds both fear and intolerance.

Answer 3

Yes, I believe fear is a factor. They are afraid of what they do not know. They are afraid that they will lose what they are comfortable with.

People also like to put a face (or a race) to a problem. It makes them feel better about themselves. They blame unemployment on Indians, blame crime on young Black Americans, blame Asians for not getting into college, blame White Americans for leaving people so poor...

We have to take the effort to understand each other. That is the way to end intolerance!

Answer 4

I think at times it may be a factor. In these situations I think it is a fear of loss of control. When an individual or group fears they may lose control of an issue then many times intolerance occurs in an attempt to compromise the position and power of the conflicting group.

Answer 5

I stop watching main stream TV over 2 years ago when I found I can get anime and asia films cheap.

I do still watch "house", some PBS, "lost" if I don't sleep by then and I really really miss the SF channel of Battlestar G. Now that is a great show.

There is just nothing good these day on TV with these "reality TV" it remind me of the movie "roller ball" where people get off watching people die on TV for real.


I really miss the good old days of "twin Pikes with david lynch". I hope he try it again with TV even on cable.

Now that was tv at the greatest.

Answer 6

The reptilian part of the brain's cortex is the one that makes humans aggressive, fearful, etc. The brain as it evolves does not discard the older parts, newer layers are built around the older parts, so the aggression, the alpha male syndrome, fear remains, and is required too, otherwise we'd stop being inventive and innovative.
That's about as simple as I can be on this issue.
Life's Lovey! Love & Live Life!

Answer 7

Fear is a primal emotion, so it comes from deep inside our psyche.
Scare someone, and then say you alone can protect them - well you have their support for a long time.
It comes from lack of knowledge, and stories to hurt anyone not in the group. All blondes this.. type stories. This _____ race is/are bad... type stories - just fuel fear.


My brain hurts now, this is as close to a thought I've had all day. I need Aspirin!

Peace.

Answer 8

i think I do not ask questions as well as you.

The root of anger is fear, the root of fear is pride.

One wants to exist separate to be an individual. This is usually the source of pride. The desire to be one, and not subject to others, becuz if you are subject to another you are at least partly theirs. we're better than that right, so pride. If you are one then in order to stay one you must be strong. Since no one is ever stronger than everyone else then some might take some of your oneness. This is then the cause of fear.

to me it is clear then that intollerance is not wanting to be around someone we fear because they might get some of our oneness, and then we would be somehow less.

The answer to the riddle is that by giving of our oneness we increase,

so in the end intollerance causes exactly the opposite effect than what is desired,

Answer 9

Other-ness. I think that even reasonable people can feel afraid of people if they think those people are very different from themselves. We know that as people, we are these big pouches of opinions and attitudes and politics and hidden surprises, so until we get to know someone, we don't tend to trust all of the contents of their mental pouches. Your guess is correct: my opinions are what people fear about me.
I think we are really biologically and genetically programmed to only claim kinship with people that we see as being significantly LIKE ourselves. Where you draw your LIKE/ UNLIKE line is a highly personal matter and for most people, that line changes throughout their lives- either to let more people into or to exclude more people from one's "inner circle." It is merely "other-ness" that creates enough fear to keep us apart. An interesting side effect is that when someone looks a lot like us, but is found to be significantly different in some way, our feelings of distrust toward that person can become amplified out of all proportion. That's why Christian sects fight more fiercely against conflicting Christian sects than against people from other religions and why "black on black" violence is worse than "black on white".
Just examples. It can happen to anyone, but I watch for it.

Answer 10

We fear what is different, because we want to be right about what we are. So anyone living a different lifestyle needs to be punished, or set right, so we don't have to ask ourselves if we would be happier being different. It's so much easier to follow a pre-defined and widely accepted path.
But maybe people just fear because they are taught to.
.....then again maybe it's not fear, but that feeling of being right. (you must be right if everyone agrees with you)

Answer 11

There's nothing wrong with intolerance, as long as it's not ignorant intolerance. There are many things that should not be tolerated for legitimate reasons. Here are just a few:

1) Violent criminals
2) Terrorists
3) Sexual deviants

The list can go on and on. Whoever tries to push "blind" tolerance is just as bad as someone pushing "blind" ignorance.