What is Fear.

[Puck2.0]

I have been learned that fear is your worst advisor.

I learned for myself that fear is a result of not understanding a subject or a result of bad experiences with a subject.

Not knowing a subject means an opportunity to learn something new.

An opportunity requires an action to be undertaken.

An action results in a reaction that you fear because you do not know of the outcome and thus you are fearing an uncertainty.

So when i would formulate this very straight forward one could say.

An individual can be affraid to take the opportunity to learn something he or she does not know yet.

However when the fear is based upon examples from experiences one should not accept the fear and its opportunity for there is nothing to learn.

So best to study your fear and act courages when confronted with fear when unavoideble, based on your knowledge of understanding its inherretance.

I personaly think the word or even the feeling of fear shouldn't exist in the first place since it's drawn forth from unknowing or a negative influence to an individuals enviorment. 

So logicaly one would like to overcome or learn that particular fear or icompetance of understanding.

Not stating that i am fearless but i do respect it with apriopiate rules of engagement.

Anyone wanna share some perspectives on ''Fear''?

 

Yours Truely Puck.

[Mister Mister]

  Good question.  I think your perspective that "fear shouldn't exist" because "it's drawn forth from unknowing or a negative influence" is a very common idea, especially in New Agey (r-selected?) circles.  Usually anger is included in this, as "negative" emotions.  I think this is incredibly false and should be rejected and scorned with all your will!!!!  It's a kind of fatalistic attitude, by which I mean it is embraced by people who lack, either by choice or circumstance, control over their life apart from their feelings.  Fear and anger are very useful emotions, for responding to danger and threats, and adjusting your behavior accordingly, to identify, escape or contain the dangerous situation.  So this idea that we should never feel fear or anger, I think, tends to be embraced by people who either choose or actually lack the ability to control their environment to the point where they can deal with threats.  Also relevant to note that this is associated with r-selected species (and people) who have less of a response to threats than k-selected species.  When an eagle snatches a rabbit, the other rabbits just go on eating grass, there's no point in them stressing out about it, because there is little they can do to protect themselves, and they can always make more rabbits.  On the other hand, we all know the "scaredy cat" -- housecats tend to over-respond to threats because survival is hard for them, and they also have great physical adeptness and finely tuned senses, so fear is useful for them to escape certain circumstances, because they have the capacity to.

About fear of the unknown - not all fear comes from the unknown.  Again, fear comes from the perception of threats.  The more unknown, however, often fear ratchets up.  In the jungle where you can't see the tiger lurking in the bushes, or the ocean where you can't see sharks, or the dark where you can't see much of anything, you are naturally going to be more prone to fear.  From an evolutionary perspective of course, this makes perfect sense, according to the "better safe than sorry" principle - maybe 1 out of 100 times, that rustling in the bushes is a tiger preparing to strike at you, but if you don't react with caution to rustling in the bushes, sooner or later you'll get eaten.

Lastly, I would say this.  There IS such a thing as fear which is irrational and unhealthy, and this tends to come from adverse childhood experiences.  If childhood was a dangerous place, your whole nervous system can be programmed to react to that, even once you reach adulthood and are no longer in danger.  Think of a veteran who dives under a table when a car backfires or fireworks go off, this is the kind of "triggering" many people who suffered childhood trauma endure all their life, without processing it properly.  Like I said earlier, the whole purpose of fear is to excite your nervous system into escaping or resolving a dangerous situation, and then you can relax once the threat is averted.  I have personal experience with this, when I was attacked by a group of kids, I experienced rapid and intense confusion, then fear, then anger; I pulled a knife, chased them off, and then as I let out a sigh I felt an immense rush of euphoria and relief, one of the most intense emotions I've ever felt.

  So to just reject fear altogether is simplistic and foolish I think.  To do so means NOT to make the essential distinction between rational fear of real threats, and irrational fear of imaginary or highly exaggerated ones, and to leave yourself open and vulnerable to the real threats in our world.  The key is to process that fear, identify whether there is an external threat, or an internal triggering, and take the steps necessary to de-escalate that fear, rather than just trying to will it away without making any changes.  Hope that helps.

[Puck2.0]

 I think this is incredibly false and should be rejected and scorned with all your will!!!!  It's a kind of fatalistic attitude, by which I mean it is embraced by people who lack, either by choice or circumstance, control over their ljife apart from their feelings.  Fear and anger are very useful emotions, for responding to danger and threats, and adjusting your behavior accordingly, to identify, escape or contain the dangerous situation.

 

Well so basicly you're saying you should be feared and angered all day, because you will be confronted with it and when you do you can take action to overcome it.

If it's there to overcome and a personal emotion why should i accept it or should it be there?

Ohh i get it: It is there to not be there, sorry it just doesn't make sense too me.

 

Thank you for being a voice of reason and i think we both said the same thing only the efficiency of expressing was different.

 

It was helpfull, take care Rose wish you the best.

[Mister Mister]

Well so basicly you're saying you should be feared and angered all day, because you will be confronted with it and when you do you can take action to overcome it.

If it's there to overcome and a personal emotion why should i accept it or should it be there?

Ohh i get it: It is there to not be there, sorry it just doesn't make sense too me.

Can you point to where I said this?  I get the sense you didn't really process what I said.  You are presenting a false dichotomy - either you reject all fear, or you live in constant fear.  That's not what I said at all.  Fear, like other emotions, delivers a condensed amount of information, telling you that you are in danger.  Now it may be that you are in danger, in which you should take steps to remove yourself from danger.  Or it may be that you are not in danger, but for psychological reasons you are experiencing fear, probably from a childhood where there was a greater perception of danger.  In this case you should introspect and get help if you can, and heal the wounds so that you can live an emotionally healthy life.

 

Either way, of course you don't want to live in perpetual fear.  But just saying "fear is negative, don't feel it", isn't a solution.  Again, this is for people who lack the will or the ability to make positive changes in their life, so they delude themselves.  Like Jesus teaching the slaves "turn the other cheek" (i.e. it is virtuous to offer yourself up for more abuse again and again) and "love thy enemy" because they had no other choice.  I strongly urge you to consider this kind of ideology is like a drug, a tranquilizer of your natural healthy emotions, which is why I suggested that you reject it with all your will.

 

I hope this makes more sense, my initial post was a bit of a ramble.  I appreciate your sincerity but IMO you have a lot to learn as far as processing rational arguments.  Take your time

[Matthew Ed Moran]

We cant ever really escape fear without processing it, unless we do it by escaping reality. I'm pretty sure we don't have conscious control over the fight/flight mechanism of the brain, except by conquering or escaping the threat. The only other option is that you consciously, continually mis-interpret your subcoscious fear, by which you will need to escape into an imaginary world as a last vicissitude to posses some sort of control over your fears, without ever having to address them.

 

So at least in that sense, it will never be possible to escape your fears or anger without consciously processing them, and deciding what they are telling you about yourself and the environment you are in. Fear is never irrational, people are irrational in response to their fear. The fear will escalate until it is all encompassing if the person does not get the picture sooner or later that they will have to make a choice between reality and imaginary.

 

I think people who attempt to escape their fear and anger only ever end up becoming the eternal source of their fear and anger, because instead of cutting the line to their trauma, they would rather reinforce it and continually manage it their whole lives. Instead of addressing its source and curing it, they would rather take "pain pills" and comatose themselves out of existence.

[Puck2.0]

Can you point to where I said this?  I get the sense you didn't really process what I said.  You are presenting a false dichotomy - either you reject all fear, or you live in constant fear.  That's not what I said at all.  Fear, like other emotions, delivers a condensed amount of information, telling you that you are in danger.  Now it may be that you are in danger, in which you should take steps to remove yourself from danger.  Or it may be that you are not in danger, but for psychological reasons you are experiencing fear, probably from a childhood where there was a greater perception of danger.  In this case you should introspect and get help if you can, and heal the wounds so that you can live an emotionally healthy life.

 

Either way, of course you don't want to live in perpetual fear.  But just saying "fear is negative, don't feel it", isn't a solution.  Again, this is for people who lack the will or the ability to make positive changes in their life, so they delude themselves.  Like Jesus teaching the slaves "turn the other cheek" (i.e. it is virtuous to offer yourself up for more abuse again and again) and "love thy enemy" because they had no other choice.  I strongly urge you to consider this kind of ideology is like a drug, a tranquilizer of your natural healthy emotions, which is why I suggested that you reject it with all your will.

 

I hope this makes more sense, my initial post was a bit of a ramble.  I appreciate your sincerity but IMO you have a lot to learn as far as processing rational arguments.  Take your time

I think this is incredibly false and should be rejected and scorned with all your will!!!! Concidered pointed out.

[Mister Mister]

We cant ever really escape fear without processing it, unless we do it by escaping reality. I'm pretty sure we don't have conscious control over the fight/flight mechanism of the brain, except by conquering or escaping the threat. The only other option is that you consciouslly, continually mis-interpret your subcoscious fear, by which you will need to escape into an imaginary world as a last vestitude to posess some sort of control over your fears, without ever having to address them.

 

So at least in that sense, it will never be possible to escape your fears or anger without consciously processing them, and deciding what they are telling you about yourself and the environemnt you are in. Fear is never irrational, people are irrational in response to their fear. The fear will escalate until it is all encompassing if the person does not get the picture sooner or later that they will have to make a choice between reality and imaginary.

 

I think people who attempt to escape their fear and anger only ever end up becoming the eternal source of their fear and anger, because instead of cutting the line to their trauma, they would rather reinforce it and continually manage it their whole lives. Instead of addressing its source and curing it, they would rather take "pain pills" and colmatose themselves out of existence.

Thanks for saying what I was trying to say more clearly and succinctly

[Matthew Ed Moran]

Rose, I appreciate it, haha. But I surely wouldn't have been able to write my post as clearly without reading yours first, which I upvoted

[Puck2.0]

I like m both as long as they respect me and my life.

Thank you for your perspectives.

[Mister Mister]

I like m both as long as they respect me and my life.

Thank you for your perspectives.

 

Well I appreciate your thanks, but I don't know if we can just leave it at that, not in a philosophy forum ...I think Matthew and I have both taken a similar stance, which contradicts your Opening Post.  So do you accept the argument or not, and why?

[Puck2.0]

Since love is a selfprotection mechanism adepting to enviorments.

Fear is a built in selfprotection mechanism that produces an act of love once confronted with a hostile or unchartered enviorment.

 

Maybe that would be even more efficient way of expressing so that its energy level is minmized and more accepteble in life.

Thank you again for being a toning pitch, i apoligize for my incompetence of putting togheter a rather time consuming and allready processed energy produced from your side.