On Fear
We are doing something we have never done before. But there’s always a first time! Until now, we’ve always tried to publish new articles. We had an idea for this article. We had started writing down ideas and making initial notes. Yesterday, however, we realized that we had already published an article on this topic some time ago. In German. It was about fear. The topic is so relevant that we are repeating ourselves. This time, it’s in English. So it’s not really a repetition.
We need to talk about feelings. About emotions. About the one, perhaps. We should talk about fear. Fear is a very important experience for Europeans. We are raised with an ontology of fear. In other words, the world we inhabit as beings is full of fear, to paraphrase Heidegger.
1. Heidegger and Fear
I don’t want to analyze Martin Heidegger at this point. It would probably be too complicated. It would also take up too much space. Besides, perhaps I didn’t understand him. As always, these are just a few thoughts. Perhaps a suggestion. Or maybe not.
Heidegger distinguishes between anxiety and fear. He says anxiety is what we feel before the unknown, before something we don’t know. Fear, on the other hand, is what we would feel if we knew what was coming. (Heidegger connoisseurs may forgive the abbreviation at this point; I am more concerned with the occurrence of the term than with the precise translation.)
Fear, then. Since we always stand before the horizon of knowledge and do not know what will happen or what tomorrow will be like, we can constantly remain in fear.
Conversely, European culture has produced many “fearless” heroes, whose only merit was not being afraid of the future.
The concept of time is not the only thing that gives us a tomorrow. It is the daily experience of life that makes Europeans fearful.
2. The fear of death
Death does not exist. We have banished it from our culture. When death is in the news, we are all horrified. It no longer plays a role in our daily lives. We have confined death, just as Kant once confined God. We now hope that we can escape death this way. Do Europeans also want to escape the fear of death? Heidegger wrote about this, too.
The dilemma is that we cannot clearly describe when death occurs, either ontologically or medically. Medically speaking, perhaps it never occurs, which means we could live forever (connected to apparatuses that supply our bodies with everything vital).
Thanks to death—and the unresolved problem of when it occurs—we have found the possibility of experiencing infinite fear.
3. And politics
Or should I say, religion? Europe, at least, is built on fear. For a long time, it served as a form of legitimization. Those who claimed to have contact with higher authorities (in the European narrative, it was gods) also determined the image of the afterlife. Therefore, they can also determine what we fear, even if it is something we will never experience. Heidegger is right that we cannot experience our own death, even though death marks the end of life.
4. And politics
We have written about this extensively. However, fear seems to be an effective political tool. When societies (and individuals) are afraid, they have difficulty making decisions, narrow their perspectives, and end up following simple solutions to complicated problems. As we have seen throughout history, leading with emotions does not produce good solutions. What should happen instead? Are European societies already so focused on fear that they expect it? This is not a political issue. These are simple questions because fear knows no left or right. Fear knows desired reactions.
5. And life in fear.
That’s what Europeans (and North Americans) are ultimately left with. Fear is their constant companion. This fear is both religiously and politically intentional, and ontologically explained, although I find European ontologies to be confused, to say the least. In other words, it’s a normal state. Religions, politics, and metaphysics have emerged from this state.
