The last couple of years have further cemented my suspicions about what people are willing to do when they are fearful and refuse to either ask or entertain questions that refute that fear.
We ask how the atrocities of war can happen, where whole societies can look the other way as groups of people are singled out for ostracization, imprisonment, and even extermination. We have our answer: fear and control. Most people, it would seem, will abandon their morality if they feel justified through fear and a sense of authority. The people who, in the last couple years, self-righteously declared that anyone who didn't comply with the arbitrary rules of covid should be ostracized from society and refused medical treatment are the same people who would justify sending Jews and other undesirables to prison camps because they were supposedly a blight on society. Yet those people had the gall to call us, the non-conformers, Nazis.
I can't un-know and un-see what I've learned and seen since 2020. I can't look at people the same way that I did before.
I did have inklings before 2020, of course, because I have asked uncomfortable questions. I know that people, by and large, refuse to question accepted knowledge. You might study and research a topic that contradicts something that "everyone knows," and you might have very good reason to question it, but most people (having done exactly zero research on the subject) will immediately poo-poo your questions and shut down any discussion. They won't want to hear what you've learned or what you're thinking. They will call you names for asking the question. They will laugh at you.
When I served a mission, I created a name for this. I called it "the fear of being sold something you didn't want to buy." There is this irrational fear we have that somehow, someone will talk us into believing or buying something that we don't agree with; and somehow, we will have no control over this process, and we'll just wake up one day and realize we're stuck against our will and can't get out.
It sounds silly when you name it and describe it (how would you be completely unaware of the process until it was too late to question it?), but naming and describing a fear is how you overcome it. Until you name it and describe it, it lurks like a demon in the shadowy places of your heart, causing nebulous anxiety and worry. An unnamed fear is a truly frightening thing. A named fear is a tamed fear. But to name a fear, you must face it and examine it thoroughly, and that can seem like a daunting process. Most of us are not interested in doing that work even though the more you face and name your fears, the easier it gets.
Once you name this fear, you can comfortably have conversations with people who are presenting a different viewpoint from yours, learning to understand where the other person is coming from and calmly choosing which points you agree with or disagree with, pondering those points later at your leisure. Only when both participants have tamed this fear is such a conversation possible. When you have faced and named this fear, you can ask questions that challenge the narrative. You have the mental capacity to reject "common knowledge"--or at least to have reservations about it until you have done more study and research to your satisfaction.
There is also a fear of being different, of not being seen to conform to society's standards, of being on the outside. It's a powerful fear. It works to keep most of us compliant with society's rules--which isn't necessarily a bad thing since it can prevent people with a weak moral compass from committing crimes. But when the fear is too strong, people will commit atrocities against each other in order to remain acceptable to the larger group.
In the last two years, we have seen how fear rules most people. We have seen how seemingly normal, kind people will immediately turn on those who are not complying with the authority that the larger group has accepted as valid. We have seen how people will refuse to ask questions or allow others to ask questions that challenge the accepted authority. We have seen neighbors, friends, and family members cast out the undesirables.
We have caught a glimpse of what we, as otherwise normal people, are willing to do to others we don't agree with or who are not toeing the line. And it is truly frightening.
Does fear rule you?
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