Fear, Lies and the Liar

"Fear is an idiot" according to Ambrose Bierce.  As I recall, his point was that fear is unintelligent, indeed stupid in the extreme.  Fear cannot think, according to Bierce; it has no brain.  Thus, when possessed by fear (the equivalent in some ways to being possessed by a demon) a person has no brain, doesn't think--cannot think, in fact.

Bierce was treating Fear as if it was a person, or being of some kind, to which human attributes may be ascribed.  In the same fashion and for the same purpose, we may say that Fear is a liar.

How could it be otherwise if Fear is an idiot, incapable of thought?  Fear can't speak the truth as it can't know the truth. Ascertaining what is true in a particular case requires inquiry into a situation.  As C.S. Peirce and John Dewey would say, inquiry is appropriate and effective when there is a problem to be solved, i.e. when we're confronted with something uncertain, unclear, confusing.  Inquiry doesn't arise, though, when interpretation of circumstances is preconceived or predetermined.  Then analysis of a situation becomes a kind of special pleading.  What seems to be uncertain isn't construed as uncertain.  Instead, the situation is deemed to be an instance of X or Y, and efforts are made to make the circumstances conform to the assumption made without taking them into account in any meaningful way.

H.L. Mencken wrote that to a government, the most dangerous person (he said "man," actually) is someone who can think things out without regard to the prevailing superstition.  That may be true.  But in these strange times, who is there who can think things out, let alone think at all?

Lies are ubiquitous now.  Social media and some traditional media are full of them.  Some lies are made with the intent to confuse or promote fear.  Some lies are merely circulated, as instantly as they're made, by those who believe them.  Some merely misstate the facts.  But it seems that lies are believed more and more as more and more lies are made and spread across the World Wide Web, and repeated again and again.

We live in a propagandist's paradise.  Joseph Goebbels would be amazed by the possibilities available, and enthralled by the opportunities presented.  It's so very easy to lie, easier still to spread the lie, now.

Which brings us back to Fear.  There are many liars and so there is much fear.  We have a president who according to available evidence lies virtually every instant.  This is unusual even in a politician.  

Fear is here, and is as ubiquitous as are lies.  Fear of the new, fear of the strange, fear of change, primarily; fear of violence, fear of division, fear of displacement, fear of others unlike ourselves.  Fear the liar takes advantage of Fear the idiot.  Fear the idiot accepts the lies of Fear the liar, without reservation. Fear the liar incites Fear the idiot to thoughtless reaction and to a thoughtless desire to be free from fear and thought, or the need for thinking.

 

The Kingdom of Fear

The late Hunter S. Thompson described our Great Republic as "The Kingdom of Fear" in the title of a book he wrote, and also in a song he co-wrote with the equally late Warren Zevon which appeared in his fatefully titled album My Ride's Here.  More and more, we seem to become that place.  Worse yet, perhaps, we're in active search of a King of our kingdom.

It's not the first time, I suppose.  FDR's claim we have nothing to fear but fear itself was made during a fearful time for our nation.  But the fear which now seems to define us is different from that we felt during the Great Depression.  That's my speculation, of course, and nothing more.  I didn't live through the Great Depression.  My parents did, and I know of it only through what they said and what I've read.

But I think it's reasonable to say that what we fear now is different from the fear one feels when there is no money or even food to feed ourselves or those we love.  There's no question there are things to fear now, and they are serious things.  But the fear too many of us feel is of other, different, people, and too often is of difference itself, which is to say of anything with which we're unfamiliar or uncomfortable.  And in this case our "leaders" (such as they are) unlike FDR are telling us we should be afraid; they urge us to feel fear and act on that fear.

It happens that they often do so to benefit themselves.  This is unsurprising in politicians and pundits, but contemptible nonetheless.  But it's dangerous as well because as I noted in a prior post, fear is an idiot (to quote Ambrose Bierce).  Fear, in other words, makes us stupid.

We happen to have quite a few guns here in God's favorite country.  I have a couple of "long guns" myself.   I don't carry them about with me, though I've heard of some cases where men do so, brandishing them proudly in fast food places and supermarkets.  It takes a peculiar kind of person to indulge in such displays, I believe, particularly with a rifle or shotgun.  I saw a man wearing a handgun on his hip at a restaurant not long ago. 

If I speculate why someone who isn't in law enforcement or engaged in hunting or shooting sports would carry a gun of any kind in public, and particularly in public establishments where other people eat or shop or congregate for any reason, I find it hard not to conclude that it is out of unreasonable fear, or due to the fond hope that they may use it in some manner in an heroic fashion, killing or maiming one of the many bad guys who haunt our thought and, we are being told, must defend ourselves against.  It occurs to me that people who are afraid, or looking for a chance to use a gun, are best off not carrying them around in public.  At least, others are better off if they don't. 

Fear begets a number of other unpleasant things.  It of course begets fear itself--in my case, fear of those who encourage fear among us--but also hate, anger and generally a thoughtless response to circumstances.  This was of course a fairly common subject of episodes of The Twilight Zone.  Rod Serling taught us nothing, it seems.  Was Serling's time more like ours than the time of the Great Depression?  The Communist scare may be comparable.  We were afraid of commies lurking unknown among us.  But now those who should frighten us according to those who delight in telling us what to do and think are identified more easily.

It's difficult to see fear in others, except when we're face to face.  It's easier, though, to see hate and anger and conduct caused by fear.  Unfortunately, we see these things more and more, if not on our TVs, smart phones, tablets and other devices then in our daily lives.  We're all angry at something as far as I can tell, and our anger is in front of us, and related by us to others, thanks to our technology, front and center 24/7 as we've been taught to say.  The Republican National Convention, sadly, was a kind of celebration of fear and its effects, a festival of it in fact.  We'll see more as this agonizing, endless presidential campaign winds down.

Fear may motivate us to address our problems but it is useless and even destructive in solving them.  The Kingdom of Fear will be brutish, intolerant, quick to react to any slight, real or imagined, but also cautious in the extreme when it comes to change of any kind and the unfamiliar.  It will seek scapegoats.  It will shut its gates.  It will be an unhappy place, filled with people who will find no comfort, being fearful.  There are those who long for this kingdom.  "Dangerous creeps are everywhere" according to the lyrics of the song Thompson and Zevon wrote.  They were right.

Fear and the Stoic

A follower, or admirer, or even someone merely interested in the Stoic philosophy should consider its application in the case of the more visceral of the emotions.  I think this is required for an honest appraisal of the effectiveness of stoic practice and of the validity or appropriateness of the philosophy itself.

Of course "visceral" may be deemed to apply to all the emotions to the extent they're not founded on reason.  However, for purposes of this post, I use "visceral" to refer to those emotions which are peculiarly intense; irrational, certainly, as are other emotions, but also having characteristics which are significantly physical or result in physical symptoms, as it were.

I think one of these emotions is fear, particularly where fear manifests itself in such conditions as cold sweats, nausea or an "icy" feeling in the stomach, and even (I suppose it must be said) trembling.  In my case and apparently in many other cases, such a fear is the fear of heights.  Not that I'm overwhelmed by a beautiful vista enjoyed from a secure location high on a hill or mountain; certain of my encounters with high places have actually been enjoyable, particularly when I'm accompanied in my encounter by an alcoholic beverage of my choice.  But in some circumstances, my fear of heights can be paralyzing.

I went zip lining recently, in Jamaica on what's called Mystic Mountain.  This interesting pastime is not one I've pursued in the past, and it wouldn't be accurate to say I pursued it in this case.  Rather, I made a decision to "zip" despite the fact that I feared doing so.  I wasn't surprised to find that I felt fear while doing so as well.  I also felt fear while enduring the agonizing ride up to the starting point of the "zip" on the very high, disturbingly slow, ski-lift or ski-lift equivalent which is the only means of transport available to prospective "zippers."  Slowly making a steep ascent sitting on a kind of thin bench with nothing to hold onto but an appallingly small metal bar as one dangles in the air is, for me, a terrifying experience.

Well, I managed to endure the terror of the ascent and zip lining as well, and am in an odd way pleased at my endurance.  Whether I will ever zip line again is an open question.  But there is something good about overcoming one's fear; something satisfying in any case.

Now in enduring these experiences I made an effort to apply stoic practice.  For example, I reminded myself that whether the ski-lift would function properly, and whether the lines on which I zipped would or would not break, were things quite beyond my control; I reminded myself that Epictetus noted that how and when we would die, as die we will, are also beyond our control; that death is not a thing to fear; that height should no more be a source of fear than any other characteristic of our necessary interaction with the rest of the world, with nature.

It's possible that these considerations contributed to my endurance.  But the fear most certainly was present as were its "symptoms" although those symptoms were not severe enough to render me helpless or a gibbering wreck, and I think that but for white knuckles and a notable rigidity, and a demeanor which would have been, at best, grim, I did not appear significantly distressed.

It may be that I haven't devoted enough time and effort to the kind of "spiritual exercises" one sees in the thoughts and sayings of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, but I speculate that my fear of heights will never be eradicated by being a Stoic, or at least attempting to be a Stoic.  I think it's fair to say, however, that stoic practice has eradicated or at least rendered minimal my emotional reactions in other cases, i.e. in those cases which don't involve my fear of heights, but which stoic practice has established to my satisfaction should not be allowed to disturb me.

Perhaps the fear of heights and similar fears must be distinguished from other feelings.  Perhaps such fears are based on considerations or conditions which are, so to speak, immune from Stoic philosophy.  I'm not certain of this, though, as Epictetus at least evidently said with some frequency that it should be a matter of indifference whether, e,g., the emperor kills us or incarcerates us, and it would appear the fear of death is for many of us the equivalent of my fear of heights.  So one may infer that to Epictetus the ideal Stoic, the Stoic Sage, would in some manner have extinguished such fears and other "visceral" emotions of feelings.

My thought at this time is that such fear cannot be extinguished; however, it's possible it can be restricted, limited--endured.  To the extent the Stoic philosophy may promote such endurance, however, it is valuable even when applied to those fears and emotions we feel so powerfully "in our guts."