Fear

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I doubt if there is any human emotion more elemental than fear. Others may be its equal, but none surpass it in defining what we are. Fear of physical harm, fear of loss, fear of shame compel us, often in unflattering directions. Much of our most craven, least humane behavior results from some sort of fear. I can’t recall Timothy McVeigh’s motives, but the Alabama Sunday School bombers were surely afraid of the coming end of their way of life. Fear can strip from us the veneer of civilized life that we wear so comfortably and thoughtlessly in ordinary circumstances.

The survival value of fear is easy to see. I’m not sure if fish have fear or just swim about oblivious to danger, right up to the moment when they meet their end, but surely it was not too long after the creatures that were to become mammals crawled out of the sea, that something like fear began to evolve. Those creatures who had some of it did better than those without it, and that’s why we have it now. I wonder though if the creatures at the top of the food chain today know fear. Is a grizzly ever frightened or do they just go where they want and do what they want without a second thought? Humans, who might be thought of as being at the top of the food chain, (though not by me) of course have fear of their own kind. I don’t think male grizzlies do that. I think maybe a male grizzly just does not know what fear is.

Perhaps the most striking part of a visit to the Galapagos Islands is to walk among wild animals that have no fear of humans. It's really stunning to have one’s presence go rather unnoticed by all manner of bird, reptile and seal. Of course these same creatures may fear something else. The remarkable experience is for the human who is accustomed to being feared to suddenly not inspire fear.

There are those of us who at times appear virtually fearless. Perhaps it is not that the sky diver is fearless, but that he or she does not allow the fear they feel to dominate their actions. Or perhaps some have such confidence in the engineering and physics of the situation that they have no more adrenaline rush than others have when they get into a car.

And finally we come to the politically motivated suicide. What is the fear quotient of a person who is walking around with a load of high explosives taped to his torso? Is this person fearless, or simply in control of his fear? I surely don’t know, but I have a hunch that that Nigerian son of a banker, had something going on that was a lot like FEAR. He sat for hours and hours with explosives strapped to his body. What was he thinking about all that time? We are not programmed to seek death. We are the opposite. After he went to the bathroom and had the greatest bowel movement of his life, what did he do? He was there in that private space with whatever time he needed to insure that all was well with his bomb. In fact he could have detonated it to equal effect right there. I suspect that it was not the bomb that failed, but the bomber and that the failure was due to fear.