Fear: how would you alleviate it?

Question

In a violent and aggressive world, how would you alleviate the fear of those who feel that violence is the only answer?

If you were afraid, how would you want someone to encourage you to let go of your fears?

Answer 1

Knowledge - That is why the people that use fear do it in areas where there is a lack of knowledger. Religion is especially one area. They talk about things that can not be proved but use those areas to control through fear. The President uses terrorists to instill fear. It isn't a person that we can see. It is one that is an unknown. We don't want Osama found since we could not fear him then. Notice when they do find someone, there is always an unknown put in his place.

Answer 2

Wisdom.
Of course, wisdom really is gained only by those who have overcome fear and gained the wisdom of the experience...so how is one to impart wisdom to those who are capable of reacting to fear only with violence????

Damn....I wish I had an answer to this question that I could even come close to believing was a 'right' answer.

Perhaps there is no answer, at least in the short term.

Perhaps the only real answer is to be found over the course of succeeding generations, one little advance at a time, until enough wisdom has been imparted to youth that they learn how to deal with fear before they are already in its grasp...obviously, I mean, any intelligent observer can see the futility of trying to reach people already in the grip of fear, regressed to an 'animilistic' state, unreachable....

Sooo.
If sufficient guidance in the pursuit of knowledge in youth can alleviate mindless or violent reactions to fear, leading to gained wisdom from the overcoming of said fear, then maybe there is hope for tomorrow's world.

Perhaps the only solution is to lay the foundation now for future generations..ours is screwed.

Answer 3

Y'know I already asked my question today before I saw yours. (we're both thinking along the same lines this morning)

To borrow a line from Eleanor Roosevelt: (paraphrased, I can't remember it exactly)

'You gain strength, courage and confidence by looking fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think that you cannot do'

Fear is mostly an illusion. When we stand up to it, it dissapears. However it is a powerful illusion and it takes great courage to face up to one's fears. So how does one find the courage to have courage?

Its like exercise, it has to be done in steps. One has to start with little fears and when one discovers that that which they fear is not really that scary, then one has to move on to the next level. More exercise means that you can do more exercise. The same goes with fear-busting.

I used to be terrified of heights until I took up rock climbing, now I love it. I used to be terrified of public speaking but now I'm a classroom teacher and I love that too.

I read a survey once that said that more people fear public speaking than death. Surely thats an illusion, but one that apparantly many people believe in.

P.S. - Those that fight fire with fire only end up with ashes.

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind...

Answer 4

I would educate those that find violence as their only interaction with the world around them.

If I am afraid, and woe how I have been, I use the words of Frank Herbert:
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over and through me.
And when it has gone past me, I will turn to see fear’s path.
Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Answer 5

I believe Teddy Roosevelt said "The only thing to fear is fear itself.", The good book states "that God did give us fear but power, love and a sound mind." Now we all have some level of fear and there are ways to comfort them but some fear is healthy fear and motivates us while others are paralysed. Now fear is sometimes demonstrated as aggression because of something conjured in the mind. It often refutes facts and reason to overcome the obsession dwelt upon in your head. It's usually not true or blown up in some degree by your constant dwelling on it but if you could face your fear, question it, see what makes you or the person react so violent maybe we could understand and calm our fears. But as long as one seeks to feed their greed, dominance, control over nouns, superiority complex and lack of ability to completely reason and discuss their fears, we will always fight over our differences or instigate fights. Blind leading blind or those who see and have hidden agenda's will lead many to ruin.

Answer 6

Most of us have a sufficient enough job just taking care of our own fears, angers. Preoccupation with those traits in others, and being concerned with how to alleviate them in others diverts our attention from what we could actually be doing where we have the power to get it done.

If I were afraid I'd deal with it. I wouldn't be asking anyone for encouragement.

Answer 7

How to Make Fear our Friend

Fear is essential for survival. We are afraid of what we know (or think we know) will hurt us. And that is biologically necessary. We are never afraid of the unknown, because we cannot have an emotion about what we have not experienced. Like all emotions, fear requires reason to be understood, before it can dissipate. When we are afraid of something that will or might happen to us, we take cover. That action comes from reasoning. When we are startled by something that might be dangerous, we react instinctively defensively.

Fear is only complex because there are so many things in the world that can produce it. To fear is a transitive verb. This means that to make sense it requires an object. It is the object which contains the solution to our fears, not the emotion. The object of fear is the cause. Fear is the effect. We cannot and should not operate on the effect. We should look at the cause. Some causes can be destroyed, some removed, some overcome, some are bigger than life. No matter what causes fear, it is essential for us to identify it. This is what it is meant by "facing one's fears".

When we identify the cause that gives us the effect of fear, we can then determine what rational action to take. Our competence at being rational is the key to finding the correct solution. No need to take a cannon, for instance, to kill a spider! Can we eliminate the cause? Can we escape from it? Can we fight it and win? Some causes are worth taking on. Others may be trivial. If I am afraid of spiders, I can do two things. I can conquer my fear by gradually learn to handle the tiniest spider and slowly increase my comfort as I get to know what these creatures do and how they act. This therapy will make me comfortable because I don't have to guess what they are like. I know how to handle them. I knew they were uncomfortable creatures to have on your skin, they still are, but I now have developed a skill I did not know I had. The other method of handling this "trivial" type of fear is to reason it out by context. How many times have I had to deal with a spider touching me in my life? Is this a fear worth the effort to conquer? There are bigger problems I should be worrying about.

The psychological fear we might feel without knowing what causes it is of a more difficult kind. That might require professional assistance in digging into our thoughts and find the real cause and how to handle that. Typically, we all have a degree of floating fear which relates to our competence at living, which is our self-esteem. No one is good at doing everything in the universe! We have no fear in doing and facing things we KNOW HOW to do well. We have fear when we are put in situations where WE KNOW we are not competent enough. Living itself requires some general level of competence, i.e. trust in our ability to judge situations correctly. Since we are not omniscient and infallible, we KNOW we can make mistakes. That KNOWLEDGE is the permanent, underlying CAUSE of any degree of fear. But that KNOWLEDGE that causes fear is our FRIEND! That is our reasoning ability which is necessary for us to be AWARE and judge what is good and what is bad. Without feeling a degree of fear that things can go wrong, we would step into life blindly! The general rule for handling ALL emotions when they get out of control, is our reasoning ability to identify their causes, not to concentrate on the symptoms.

Answer 8

Fear is always about the future. There is no fear in the present. You have to understand this clearly. Be confident of yourself. Nothing will happen without your knowledge. Never think of the past. Past is dead and gone. Have faith in your capacity to face any situation. You will find the change in your attitude towards fear.

Answer 9

The first thing you need to do is stop seeing a violent aggressive world.

This is a choice we make and we always get what we expect.

You can't make someone let go of something that they cherish.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 10

I guess, aggression, has to be delt with aggression, just like fight fire with fire. One side may be all pumped up from some stiring speach about love and restraint, while the other side, hears the same message, but do not have the brain power to under stand, and comes to kick your butt any way.

After so many get smacked up side the head, some one may wake up and smell reality.