Since the dawn of time mankind has feared for it’s own survival. In the time since record keeping it has been man himself that other men have feared and when there were no men to fear we created Gods and demons to feed our need for the adrenaline rush that the emotion of fear brings on. It was discovered thousands of years ago that fear can control man. So those in power have used fear to control the masses and those without power. But old writings tell us that a handful of men in history have used fear to get what they wanted from kings and pharaohs.
More recently different societies have used fear to control and get what is desired by the perpetrator of fear. Such was the case with the American Indians and the settlers . The settlers feared the Indians as ignorant savages, but little thought was given to how the American Indian felt or feared about the settlers. The fear of the American Indians was so great that nearly the entire race was exterminated.
The Nazi’s had such a great irrational fear of the Jewish people destroying their country that the German Nazi’s intentional set out to exterminate the Jewish race. Not once did the Nazi’s consider the fear the Jewish people must have had about them.
After world war 2 the western world had a fear of eastern nations. Bomb shelters were built and bomb drills were the norm in elementary schools in the U.S. 2nd graders practicing duck & cover in schools all over the land. Not once did we consider that somewhere in the U.S.S.R. there was a 8 year old child doing the same thing out of fear for us.
Most recently we have feared nuclear bombs, chemical warfare and terrorist attacks.
Extreme and obscene amounts of money have been spent on false securities.
We have proven to our enemies and our government that we will sacrifice anything to be unafraid.
We have scared our children for many years with the bomb drills, duct tape and the color coded images on television.
Have we ever taken the time to think that they fear us too? Do we ever consider why they fear us? Couldn’t we educate them? Or is it just easier to believe them to be ignorant savages? We have always feared a boogyman, but have we ever considered that we are someone else’s boogieman? Those in third world counties have injected fear into the mightiest country in the world and we have responded with fear. Have we ever thought that maybe that’s what they wanted us to do?
The boogyman cometh alright, but it depends on who you are as to who that boogyman is. Consider this. If we don’t condemn ourselves for torturing, someone else will.
