What We Don’t Know
Why do we fear the unknown?
One could argue that it’s hardwired into our physiology. As anyone who’s ever watched a scary movie knows, the monster you can’t see but know is there far more terrifying than any actual monster.
If you don’t know what you’re dealing with, you’re particularly vulnerable. It’s hard to come up with a strategy if you don’t even know what you’re dealing with.
We feel a sense of control when we know or think we know something.
We reach for the answers within easy reach, rather than hold open the questions and risking being wrong ( stupid, naive ignorant).
This partially explains our terror of the unknown.
It doesn’t, however, explain why we treat gaps in knowledge as a source of humiliation and ridicule
And it doesn’t explain why we imagine the unknown to be a hostile, dangerous place, filled with monsters out to get us.
The fears we feel of not knowing are culturally cultivated. We are taught to fear what we don’t know, rather than to be curious, or fascinated or open to wonder.
While our fear of the unknown is part of our physiological makeup, reinforcing and keeping these fears at a fever pitch — serves the powers that be very well.
The constant diet of horrific mind- numbing horror stories we are served on the nightly news and on Netflix, keep us afraid. That is not accidental.
Fear and trauma keep us focused on surviving, keeping up, doing what we’re told, trying to get by, not questioning the rules, or asking ourselves or each other, if there is a better way.
Why?
To answer that question, we need to ask who benefits from us being terrified of the known?
I have a few ideas but I’d love to know what you think.
