Notes

The Anatomy of Collective Fear
Collective fear is really a powerful emotion. It holds us together with its invisible grip and pushes justice and fairness out of its way just like a growing snowball rolling down a steep hill. It really is an insidious serpent that silently enters our bedrooms and creeps into our unsuspecting minds with paralyzing poison in its fangs. It makes us crawl into our shells and close our eyes to pain and insult. It prevents a good-hearted colleague from defending an unpopular individual at a workplace and enables ruthless dictators in which to stay power for many years. It hovers over schools, sports teams and societies, searching for the next group that may allow it sneak in.

Once fear has secured its place, it starts spreading its disease with the same proven method it has useful for centuries. It plants an evergrowing seed of apprehension inside our minds and convinces us to believe that any deviation from the behavior of almost all hurts our standing in the group, or in the worst scenario, puts our lives in danger. It does make us accept irrationality and tolerate unfairness for the sake of self-preservation. It does make us raise our supporting hands in front of a madman and forces us to look away when we should stand up and defend the weak. It does make us watch a bully take down our friend, also it allows rotten governments to terrorize their citizens with impunity. It creates ten strong men fear one weak soul with a gun. It causes our bodies to do something in grave contradiction with the thoughts we carry in our minds. It turns us into cowards.

Collective fear includes a great capability to transform itself right into a spell that engulfs people under its ever-thickening thundercloud. The air in its vicinity grows so heavy with worry and paranoia that dispersing it becomes extremely difficult for someone who wants to liberate. Worries grows stronger whenever a new person joins its ranks and stopping it becomes more and more difficult each second we allow it march forward. We hesitate and miss our chance to kill it when it's still weak. We watch the point of no return passing with this idle eyes and accept the sad reality: Fear has won and the powers driving it come in control.

The dark and pulsing heart of collective fear is quite strong. It paralyzes us and suffocates the rationality that's attempting to talk sense to us. Its great binding powers keep us from taking action even if we want to see change and justice happen. You want to be better but are too afraid to accomplish anything without the reassurance that others will need our side and not turn against us. We watch things deteriorate and our fellow people suffer, but we neglect to act. We let fear hold us down and bury our will to operate and fight. We have been blinded by the powerful spell that uses human anxiety for fuel to expand its destructive grasp. When read more gets control the majority of people, it becomes more powerful than hope. Hope is pushed away with regard to individual survival. That is the day when all progress stops, and evil gets control.

The evil doesn't remain in power forever, nonetheless it is really a formidable enemy. It will only be defeated when collective hope starts bombarding its heavy fortress with millions of little arrows. The fight starts slowly with several exceptional souls and requires the will to win or lose it all. The courageous ones raise their heads, but even they hesitate once the bells of terror ring loudly within their ears. They will have seen what happens to the ones who try to stand up against the mighty fear. They know that any support they have is just a thin veil of smoke in the air that will vanish if a good hint of danger is detected. The energy required to win the fight will there be, but it can only be harnessed if people get together simultaneously. But they are too scared to do it. The desire to fight is strong only behind closed doors and closed minds, and no one can be sure if it's real because fear keeps their lips tightly shut. People whisper, however they don't make promises. They wink and nod approvingly, but turn away once the time comes to make true commitments. They would like to join the ranks of justice, however when fear scolds them, they turn against one another and say they have nothing to do with the ones who dared to challenge it. They betray friends and deceive their neighbors. They serve the king fear since it is still stronger than hope. They want to play safe and wait just a little longer - see if hope has a real potential for winning.

It takes a lot of guts and determination to break free from the spell of fear. The initial ones who take the chance of losing everything will be the true heroes. They deserve the real praise and respect. We who join them later aren't the ones who make change happen or who make sure that justice wins. We are just sheep following giants - even though we are the necessary part of any effective change. We have been the hesitant ones who wait until we know that it's safe to go out. We watch the situation develop from a long way away and once there exists a hole in the spell, and the air flows in, we magically find guts too. The dominoes start falling and we wake up. We look into the mirror and ask ourselves: Why on the planet did we behave like that? Why? Because we were afraid.

Hi,
I'm J. Max Cromwell, the author of 22 Inches of Rain. It is a book about life and its little mysteries.

Cheers,
Jmax
Website: https://app.glosbe.com/profile/7055880264534199500