THE EQUATIONS OF FEAR AND POWER

When Mumbai was attacked by terrorists,people started to search sollutions for bringing about communal harmony.The media debated on terrorism.Then came the pub attack incident in Mangalore, and the new hot topics were "cultural invasion" and "women's liberation".Now it is Varun Gandhi's speech and everybody is talking about communalism.But watching closely,all this incidents points towards intolerence and more than that FEAR.........
Fear is a basic human emotion.Most of the time we fear things which we are not familiar with because we do not know what will happen.Sometimes a familiar tyrant can also create fear in our minds based on the past experience or social conditioning.The fear of the unknown is more dangerous because it can lead to prejudices.This feeling can easily become communal and people may think about preventive action.There are people who take up arms in this regard whom we call terrorists.But there are others who have all this feeling but will not show them open.Fear make them communal and the same fear prevents them from expressing it.
How the fear start? well, if we worry too much about mistakes, fear will be there.Anybody who cannot take failures as a learning experience will have fears. People who have no guts to take the responsibility of their failures will end up concluding that others are responsible for what went wrong.So the fear of failure slowly gets converted to deeper emotions.When someone who want to fish in troubled water tells that one's failure is the result of another person or community the seeds of hatred is sown.
What people do to channelise the fear?One easy way is to associate yourself with symbols of power.People try to associate themselves with people who have power or try to excercise power over anyone whom they think are weaker.One general character of people with fear is that they like to obey and command at the same time.The logic is ,if i am obedient my master will not attack me and the same way if i show my power, my subordinate will not attack me..People who are fearful need the protection of hierarchy.They cannot tolerate democracy and equality where everyone have freedom to choose.They are afraid that if they give freedom to choose,things will go out of their control and their position will be shaken.They are afraid of everyone who are different from them("modern women, minorities, anyone).
So it is this fear of losing their position which make people communal,chauvanistic and even terrorists.Fear does not allow one to face reality.So the most important thing in the fight against intolerence is the eradication of irrational fear.If one is courageous enough to face life,he/she will not try to blame others for their mistakes and they will understand that the real power is the courage to stand up for oneself ,not bullying others.Parenting becomes all more important because self respect, self reliance and courage are only be taught at home.
So it is at home, a communalist is being born,society only play a passive role..Parents of the future,please make your children self reliant and tolerant.That is the only thing we can do for a better tomorrow with lesser violence based on intolerence...............
LET THERE BE LIGHT