Daily Times

True to our animalistic instinct, the emotion that shapes and defines our world the most is not love, hate, anger, pride or pleasure, but fear. Just when the history of our world has been shaped by all the above emotions of men and women of significance, it is fear that remains the predominant factor in shaping human history. In most of the events that have shaped our world, it was the response to fear of men and women who mattered that decided the course of history.

Just when one can cite plenty of research that goes into understanding the phenomenon of fear and how it impacts human actions, probably the best understanding of what fear can do is in our own personal experiences. I, for one, have been someone who has had his fair share of fears in life and many of the critical aspects of my life have been driven by fear. There used to be a time when fear of one thing or the other would overpower me, would stifle my ability to act and would put me into an unending cycle of thoughts. And, as I became more aware, I started looking around me. First, I started finding the same fears in other people as well that in my naivety I thought only I had. Then, as the realisation enhanced, I started seeing how fear drove many of people’s actions and thoughts. I started seeing how different people acted differently on their exposure to the same type of fears and how the same person acted differently while being exposed to different fears. I saw that fear cripples, it leads to tunnel vision and it dries up our abilities and potentials. And yet, it is fear, tipped over, that is behind many gallant acts of bravery, even the few that I have had. As my realisation and understanding of fear grew, I started becoming less bogged down in the fear itself and my focus moved on to how to overcome these fears.

Fear is powerful. So powerful is fear’s impact to cripple humans that the first act of tyrannical regimes is to instil fear in the masses. A lot has been said about Zia’s lashing of political opponents or the Taliban’s public sentencing and punishments but the power play rationale of those acts was to instil fear in the masses. For fear enslaves you and conquering fear sets you free.

I talk of fear and of my own fears, because there is a lot that is making people fearful and this fear stops our potential as individuals. Look around us. We are fearful of polio, of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), of extremism, of lawlessness, of ‘ulterior’ designs of foreign powers and what not. These fears have been crippling us for the last decade or so. And they have led to despair. Add to this one’s own personal fears, of loss of material, of betrayal of emotional investments, of life, of loved ones, and our life is strangulated by these fears of ours. Xenophobia is the cause of most of the violence and conflict in our world. Fear of famine, hunger, disease and terrorism cripple us and lead us in directions that are marred by misery and trouble. Fear, since time immemorial, has stopped our ability to act. Our fears have not vanished despite the massive pace of advancements we have been through.

It is said that the only catalyst that can make one act in fear is hope and faith in that hope. It is said that it is hope that leads us to overcome fear and enter uncharted territories. For, above all, it is hope that makes us act when we feel crippled. But hope can be a slippery slope. For one, it is not hope that helps us overcome fear but the action that follows it. Second, in fear, false hope can easily be used to exploit humans, leading to worse. The delusion that we need to overcome is that it is not the hope that one needs to act to overcome fear but action. Action is the victim of fear and it is action alone that sets us free of it.

This action is very important and there is a purely scientific reason behind it. Our universe has infinite variables and we cannot determine which way the variables fall in any given scenario. Some of these variables we can understand and mitigate accordingly but most of them we do not understand. The best way to deal with the unknown is to try as many paths as one can. This increases our probability of success in a universe with many permutations. And to try different paths one has to not be crippled by fear but must act. So, even if one acts wrongly, the mere beginning of action sets one on a course where one can try one remedy after the other until the problem is solved and the fear is conquered.

Last week a good friend was nervous at the outbreak of Ebola. Many who are aware of the disease’s spread in Africa are. But then fear will not solve it. The best we can do about these mammoth problems is act in good faith in the best of our capacity with the conviction of success and with the satisfaction of having tried to overcome our fears. Good friend, act in good faith, for it is the action that will set us free.

The author can be reached on twitter at @aalimalik