Nothing to Fear except?

Question

Fear is a healthy emotion, since it warns us away from situations that could hurt us i.e. walking into a lions den, playing with a deadly snake.

How and why then does fear turn into a negative emotion? For example there was a case of a man killed in England when a village got to fearful of his introvertedness.

How can fear being a positive emotion lead to hate, persecution and injustice? Is it a flaw in the human condition that turns what would otherwise be a positive self-protection mechanism into a negative and unjustified killer? Or is it a by product of our society?

How can such situations be overcome, and how can it be translated to the large scale (real world)?

Please explain your answers. I thank you in advance for your insight?

Answer 1

All the emotions & intangible feelings can either do something constructive or destructive and there is a thin line between that. Guilt, fear, hunger- all these feeling are good as well as bad, like heads & tails of the same coin. Somehow, I feel it is our individual responsibility to stay in the good area, lets these thing do good for us & stay away from the bad. It is contextual & subjective. We can try to strive to a better person each day, but thats the best we can do.

Answer 2

People tend to overlook that fear can be a positive thing. They view as negative, because it prevents them from doing certain things. And they also don't like to think "Oh, I'm a scaredy-cat." They don't see it as protection, they see it more as limitation.
The same thing goes for hunger, sweat, and pain.

Hunger's purpose is not to make you uncomfortable, it's to ensure you don't starve. You know that food stops that pain.

Sweat isn't supposed to be annoying, it's to help cool you down and maintain a normal body temperature.

Pain is to keep you from injuring yourself. It is NOT limitation at all. If you KNOW something is going to hurt you, you are less likely to do it. There is a medical condition of some kind where you don't feel pain, so you have no way of knowing if you have injured yourself. For example, if you ruptured an internal organ and didn't feel it, how would you know?? Believe it or not, pain keeps you alive.

I think these mechanisms are all in the same category as fear. I hope that helps.

Answer 3

I think you need to dig a little deeper and define what fear is and where it comes from. I don't think we're actually born with a fear of anything. But either by instinct or conditioning, we start becoming a judge for which situations can cause us discomfort, a manifestation that we call fear. But the laws for which we judge will inherently be different for all of us. So naturally, this fear will produce different situations on both sides of the moral spectrum.

What am I getting at is that people may appear to be affected differently by fear, but they are all reacting to it the way they were meant to react. You've heard over and over again to "put yourself in their shoes." But if you realize your personality is shaped by things you can't control, you will understand why fear, or any other emotion, can be morally different for everyone.

Answer 4

Unless it is a direct physical threat to an individual, FEAR is only an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. The response to that fear comes in the form of four things, Anger, Hatred, Pain and Jealousy. Angry for being afraid, hatred for that in which you fear, the mental anguish that it causes you and the jealousy for not having that power. While these things come with fear, it is your reaction in the face of that which you FEAR that will define your character. Our society is structured based on fear, the clearest evidence being “the war on terrorism.” (Police Action) Once we understand that mental fear is an illusion, we will be able to face it and see it for what it is. False - Evidence - Appearing - Real.

Answer 5

Fear is part of our - flight or flight mechanism. It helps us run or fight. It is part of keeping us safe and alive. The problem with fear is that we can get stuck in it. We can let it control us, it can make us do things we normally wouldn't do. We get trapped in anything that we can't understand and that leads to prejudices. The hate turns in to unaceptable behavior when our fearful mind tells us that we have to do comethig or else.

Each of us needs to understand our own fear and NOT let it control us and make us in to something that we really arn't.

Fear is only a flaw when it is misdirected.

Fear is a product of nature and nuture.

Answer 6

Maybe you have something here Maybe fear is mostly negative these days. But it's debateable if only by reason of it's being a trigger for the 'fight or flight' instinct, which too often needs that injection of adrenylin for self-preservation.

Answer 7

Why do people who love turn into stalkers? Why do protective parents become overprotective to the point of abuse? Why do people who are clean become compulsive-obsessive about cleanliness? To me there seems to be a dividing point somewhere, a borderline that when it is crossed it becomes extreme. My philosophy is the belief in a Higher power than ourselves to overcome these extremities. I haven't seen mankind making much progress in these areas on their own.
The flaw would be in the human condition and it is called sin.

Answer 8

The human condition is living in duality, so fear is both good and bad. Fear is the root of anger, anger is the root of hate and hate is the root of insanity. those insane with fear,anger & hate will then try to destroy that which they fear. The presence of God dispells fear, one living in spiritual unity with God in unconditional love within their heart no longer fears. One living in Love attracts Good, one living in fear attracts that which they fear.

Answer 9

'Fear' is not what warns you of impending danger; 'instinct' does.
'Fear' is an absence of Light which is the result of "SELF" rejection.

Answer 10

I heat night dreams, day dreams and any dream I see while sleeping. I don't know why but I'm afraid of them.