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Freedom
From Fear
vs.
Fear
of Freedom
Buy
the book
Do
I feel free? I don’t think so. Freedom is not just a potential
opportunity to do the things that one openly chooses to do, because
most human actions are predicated on the primal instinct such as
fear. Moreover, most of
the things that one makes others do is done out of fear. Of course,
they include not only fear, but also love, and other passions,
though fear stands out as the most distinguished component in the
motivation for one’s actions. I can justify this by simply
analyzing the fact that fear is the major factor that survives
through generations as a result of natural selection throughout the
entire biological evolution. Organisms that experience more fear and
more aware of their surroundings, expressing due diligence and
caution in their actions and responses thereby avoiding more life
threatening dangers. In
their aversion they are sustaining their bloodline, or rather their
genetic contributions to future generations and ultimately increase
their Darwinian Fitness (pass their genes to the next generation).
We can assume that our ability to experience fear is a result of
lengthy evolution. In the book of Christophe Lambert, “La société
de la peur” (The society of fear) the author argues that the
modern society is based on fear. It could be the fear of financial
losses, unemployment, inability to support one’s family, but also
it includes the fear of solitude, fear of growing old, fear of
sickness, and of course, fear of death. Christophe Lambert makes a
strong statement that the modern society provokes most of the fears
by imposing its competitive values and intense pace of life. One of
the major concerns is Television. The author calls it “le
‘nouvel’ opium du peuple” (the new opium for people) once it
started as a very positive feature in the early 50’s that extended
the horizons and the abilities of common people to acquire knowledge
about other nations, and world events, but with time, it has become
so manipulative that it is difficult for the viewer to distinguish
between the truth and drama. Christophe Lambert mentions that the
society of the beginning of the 21st century still
remembers the consequences of the attempts to fulfill utopist ideals
of questionable minds of the 20th century; Nietzsche,
Marx, and Freud. Nietzsche continued to deepen concerns with the
existence of god, and therefore, finished the work of the
philosophers of the era of enlightenment and the philosophers of the
French revolution. This started a deep crack in the once solid
belief in the Almighty, by stating that “god is dead.” He also
created an idea of the “super-human” that provided a firm base
for Nazi attempts to improve the human race. Karl Marx created an
utopist economic theory by criticizing the old brand capitalism of
the 19th century by making the false predictions about
the future development of class struggle which ultimately laid a
basis for numerous communist states. These almost became a cause for
a global nuclear war and a complete extinction of the human species.
Sigmund Freud was probably the most innocent by declaring that his
theory of sub-consciousness, and arguing that most of people’s
motivation is based on aggression and libido, which laid the
groundwork for a series of sexual revolutions which occurred in the
20s, 50s, 70s, and 80s of the 21st century. Most likely,
Freud didn’t do much damage on a global scale and was also quite
successful in developing methods of psychoanalytical theories. We
cannot ignore that his input had a certain influence on the rate of
divorce, and jeopardizing the institution of the family by
diminishing the value of people’s relationships, bringing them
down to the “libido-aggression” level.
Christophe Lambert brings up the
statistics of divorce rates in France that have grown 400% in the
last 40 years, according to other statistics, 1 in every 3 marriages
in the united states ends in divorce.
Solitude, absence of family support, confusing religious
beliefs, indefinite sexual relationships, and frustrating and scary
media, is a full portrait of our fears in a nutshell.
How is it possible to obtain freedom
from fear? The only way that I see is to combat the factors that
create this fear, the factors that we have analyzed above.
In order to combat solitude we must learn to build our
relationships on a mutual basis, and not to expect more than the
other party can give, even though Christophe Lambert says in his
book that he believes that the internet is separating people rather
than connecting them, because it eliminates personal contact. We
cannot agree with this statement because the modern Internet allows
video conversations and very intensive socialization, even with the
most distant parts of the world. So I would argue that we should
praise the Internet as a great medium for building great
relationships and making new friends because avenues now exist to
meet professional colleagues and start relationships with total
strangers which would not otherwise be possible. We also must admit
that the Internet is a safe way to do this as far as it is not
possible to cause any harm in a physical way through the virtual
means of communication.
We
cannot diminish the importance of the basic needs of each and every
individual in some sort of system of belief that may or may not be
based on conventional religions, sects, or societies. It doesn’t
matter whether the individual chooses to be a believer or an
atheist, it is very important that an individual will build a system
of beliefs that he will feel comfortable with, and then stay
consistent with.
Christophe
Lambert mentions that the main occupation of the modern society is
consumption. “Sex idols” have become a commodity not unlike oil,
wheat, and sugar, as much as it is true that excessive consumption
of sugar is not good for one’s health, and may even cause
diabetes, excessive consumption of “sex idols” can is not good
for your soul, family, and will eventually leave you in a state of
isolation and solitude. Famous French actor, Alain Delon, that ruled
women’s hearts all over the world for almost half a century, now
spends his days completely alone in a pleasant company of his three
dogs and one cat, as French magazine, “Paris Match,” promptly
reports to its readers. When he was asked in the same interview why
he is not happy and why he is alone, he answered, “I wasn’t
programmed for happiness, I was programmed for success.” Those two
things don’t always come hand in hand. Therefore, the world starts
to turn its eyes from the wild promiscuity of the 70s and 80s to
old-fashioned family values that we may chose to adopt in order to
obtain a freedom from fear of solitude and isolation.
It
is important to act towards restoration of old-fashioned family
values that have been destroyed in the wake of the industrialization
and post industrialization. Emancipation which granted equal rights
to both genders also has a dark side which deprived women of their
privileges of a weaker gender status that many women would love to
restore. Society fails to provide basic childcare, and educational
services on the level that could be ensured by active parental
involvement that is not possible in the era of total emancipation.
There is a need to build strong family relationships using
compromises and expression, sincere interest in the problems and
beliefs of your loved ones. This
can provide us with a slight hope to not find ourselves in old age,
suffering from solitude, and isolation.
I
believe that by limiting exposure to the media may substantially
reduce the level of fear and anxiety. We don’t realize how strong
we are influenced by the images we see on T.V. Once, one young woman
that resides in a tiny French village had been interviewed by TF1,
and she reported that she experiences a lot of fear, when she was
asked why she feels this fear, she answered “ Avec tout ce que
l’on voit à la télé on a des raisons d’avoir peur” (With
all this that one can watch on T.V., one would have reasons to have
fear) If T.V. is managing the lives of modest inhabitants in distant
villages, what can we expect from the people that live in the frenzy
of modern cities?
Protecting ourselves from excessive exposure to the media
might reduce our tendency to sink into consumerism and therefore,
will protect us from an obsession of consumption as the main focus
of our lives. In abandoning consumerism as a lifestyle, we can
surprisingly realize how few things a person needs in order to
support their existence. When we manage to achieve a freedom from
fear, we will need to find a way to overcome our fear of freedom,
because there is nothing to fear but fear itself.
The only question that remains is, are we ready to face the
possibilities of a free existence?
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