LIVING WITH FEAR
(Posted 2009-01-22 19:21:53 by ArchPaladin)

I know a number of people who seem determined to do their best to live in
fear.  I cannot understand this behavior.

I suppose I should elaborate somewhat.  I don't think it's that these
people are determined to be perpetually afraid, but instead the decisions
they make in the face of fear reinforce escapist behavior.  I'm not talking
about a mere non-confrontational attitude - I'm talking about escapism. 
The decisions they make are done to further the goal of avoiding the world.
 I can assume the reasons for wanting this outcome are many.  Past
experience or trauma, attempts to reinforce childlike mentality, and
misanthropy all come to mind.

In truth, I see similar behavior in the opposite direction also: people who
seem to do their best to entangle themselves in frustration and anger,
confronting everything around them, and probably for the same reasons I
gave above.  Often times it looks like these people are trying to remake
the world into something that they prefer, although occasionally you see
someone who acts this way for everyone's benefit.  Now, I believe American
society has found a way to harness these anger-driven people to nourish and
seclude the fear-driven ones, but that's outside the scope of these initial
observations.

I also realize that for every person, both anger and fear are going to play
integral roles in how they live their lives.  Even so, it seems odd to me
that people don't often (or ever) take a step back and look to see if their
patterns of behavior are constructive in any meaningful sense.  I believe
that if they did that and were honest with themselves, they would see that
they need to reevaluate their lives and strike a new balance.  This is
probably why people are not reflective, but it strikes me as a sad irony
that the exact behaviors that people could change to make themselves better
are the same behaviors that keep them from noticing the problem.

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