“Why Am I the Anti-Fear Guy?”
by Kelvin Chin
Author
Meditation Teacher
Because for individuals, fear contracts us and causes anxiety. Fear is the emotion caused by the anticipation of unhappiness. And the more unhappy the person is, the more insecure they are. And the more insecure, the more likely they will commit acts of cruelty. The more likely they will say or do things that hurt others. Why? Because making others around them more unhappy makes the insecure person feel more powerful. And feeling more powerful — even momentarily — makes the insecure person feel happier.
It’s a vicious cycle.
Fear is at the root of the cycle.
And for societies, the effects of fear are more widespread. A society of fearful people knee jerks to incorrectly thinking that “control of others” is the answer. Because when the society is made up of inwardly fearful people, they begin to lose their ability to think rationally. They feel out of control. Then out of a sense of desperation, they might resort to choosing leaders who would capitalize on that fear by promising to control others whom they see as “the problem,” the enemy.
Kindness, tolerance, freedom and respect for the law are seen by society as “nice to haves” — not necessary. Because in a desperate mind, control reigns supreme. All else is secondary.
Leaders who prey upon the fearful and see control as the solution are typically fearful people themselves. So they seize that leadership opportunity to not only fulfill their own above-described individual need to lord themselves over others to make them feel powerless, but also assist their supporters in dishing out similar demeaning acts on others. All of that continues to promote the cycle of fear.
And thus, a society where cruelty and abuse is born. A culture where control of others is seen as “necessary to promote order.” And then it’s one easy step to abandoning a wide range of previously-held cultural ethics in favor of “the known.” The known outcome of abuse of some is seen as preferable to the unknown outcome of pursuing personal freedoms within the guardrails of the rule of law for the many.
The unknown and uncertain world that we all live in all the time is seen as a flaw to be fixed — instead of a reality to be embraced and lived within. And control is seen to be the solution. Increasingly greater control of others. Instead of seeking solutions to manage together the inherent uncertainty of the universe.
And the root cause is fear.
An anxious society is a desperate society. One that teeters on the edge of becoming an authoritarian state where abuse is tolerated because of that desperation. Such a place is not a happy place to live.
And we each know from our personal experience that control is never the long-term solution. The more we try to control, the more anxious we become. And so it is the same for societies as well.
That’s why I teach how to reduce our stress and how to manage our lives.
That’s why I am the anti-fear guy.
Kelvin H. Chin is a Meditation Teacher, Life After Life Expert, and Author of “Overcoming the Fear of Death,” “Marcus Aurelius Updated: 21st Century Meditations On Living Life” and “After the Afterlife: Memories of My Past Lives.” He learned to meditate at age 19, and has been teaching Turning Within Meditation and coaching others in their self-growth for 50 years. He helps people understand their life challenges through their individual belief systems, and helps them find their own solutions. His past life memories reach back many centuries, and he accesses those memories in his teaching and his coaching in the same way all coaches draw on their own available experiences for perspective and effective analogies. He can be reached at www.TurningWithin.org.