Fear - what is that really all about?

Fear – what’s it all about?

Times have changed – what has become a culture of courage has become a generation of fear – kids today cannot climb into their beds without checking the closet or under their beds first. Fear has become the dominant factor in the world. What was once generations of courageous and brave people have become a cultural phenomenon known as generations of baby cries and whiners. Exceptions to the rule are noted for many good kids know the differences because of good parenting.

I never climbed into bed without checking the closet or checking under the bed first. I climbed into the bed undauntingly and closed my eyes to go to sleep. Looking forward to my dreams whether they were good or bad or evil. The bed was as safe a place as any other place. There were no designated ‘safe places’ at school, at work or anywhere else including the parks where we played.

Yes, we had the boogie man, we had the witches of bad and the legends of horror just like anyone else did but the difference was we didn’t go to sleep with them as companions and partners in life. What has changed is the game of hide and seek with an added touch of horror that creates terror, anxiety and excruciating horror to make the game more exciting.

In the past, we made sure there was enough distance between imaginary and reality to go to sleep with peace. In our house, the closet door was never left open and the bed was never checked. There was no fear of anyone hiding near and causing fear inside our heads and hearts.

So how did all their fear foster, materialize and become such a gross factor in our lives? What single source can we point to and say, that’s what caused the child to be afraid? How do we resolve all this fear mongering by movies, television series, the news and the stories repeated by grown adults to their children?

It is with a certain degree of fact that these fears materialized and caused nightmares because of too many ghost stories, too much violence in the movies and television series that should be rated to exclude children but under today’s parental guidance, ignored and allowed until they are old enough to understand the difference between Hollywood and reality.

Our brains have been manipulated, orchestrated and fabricated with lies rather than truths. Kids today can hardly tell the difference between real and imaginary. This line is so thin, they are acting out what could be a matter of life and death without knowing the consequences for such behaviors.

Whether the games played are ‘Call to Duty’ or joining others playing the ‘Ouija Board,’ the memory of the movie ‘Exorcist’ and many others such as ‘Chain Saw Massacre’ are fresh in the heads of children to be real. ‘Freddy Kruger’ is real, the hockey mask of ‘Jason’ can be related to other violence inducted parts of our entertainment world but the reality is rarely divided into fiction and non-fictional characters or events. It seems that children (and adults) are attracted to things that freak them out.

With special effects and “Walking Dead” scenarios on TV daily, the thoughts of violence acted out is never left alone. It thrives in the minds of our children who repeat this to other children and make a game of it.

Sadly, because of their imagination and unconnected links to realities they are not worried or fearsome of the more realistic things in life such as family being sick or dying or even hurt – physically or emotionally. This dumbing down is also numbing down generations. We have become immune to the real-world fears and struck a partnership with artificially created fears that seldom exist in real life.

So, as we deal with the reality and imaginary worlds around us, our children fear body parts being thrown all over the place, head decapitated and blood gushing out of all body extremities and organs. This is the supernatural and popular culture that dominates today’s thinking and mindset. Few people believe in the reality that this is all created by the spreading of falsehoods, myths and legends. The lies have become the truths in many such cases.

So, as it stands, more people are drawn to horror and the paranormal than the non-fictional genre of books, movies and other forms of entertainment. This explains why people seek excitement in their lives through artificial means. They want to experience the fear because it gives them harmonic pleasure with their hormones and their dopamine and endorphins that gives them the ‘fight or flight’ sensation as a response.

Thus, it has become the goal of new generations to seek a ‘thrill’ by inducing a chemical rush otherwise known to us as a good scare but without the touch of reality it was supposed to bring when presented. In all practical senses, being scared while being in a ‘safe zone’ is moronic as it serves no purpose other than knowing the threat is not real. Perhaps this is where the answer lies in this oxymoronic situation. We induce fear to be scared under controlled circumstances and conditions that keeps us safe.

How dangerous is this when the conditions or circumstances change in the real world. One can see the traumatic impact of such misalignments of emotions and the harm it causes. The scary element of such excitement is the fact that this may be a backdrop or them of good versus the evil with the person, young or old, persevering in the face of adversity and dealing with the imaginary rather than the real world.