Wrapped in cocoons, we fear the light of day, and deny our own glorious flight.

Last month I went into detail regarding why I feel that listening to differing points of view is important and said a little about the fear we feel when having our own beliefs challenged. This month I'd like to get a little deeper into the subject of fear...fear of the unknown and, in particular, of change.

We are all seeking order in our lives. Order is comforting. Knowing what to expect means that we can adjust accordingly. We are able to run on instinct and learned responses rather than face the uncomfortable process of reevaluation and change. Nature itself seems to verify the "rightness" of patterns. Birds migrate at the same time each year, returning to the same nesting grounds. Seasons are ordered in the same sequence throughout our lives. Orderly patterns are found in the essence of tree rings, shells and tidal forces.

We call the opposite of order Chaos. The very word rings with all kinds of bad associations. Chaos is the antithesis of life. It is anarchy...each particle for itself...the breakdown of order and pattern. It is entropy. It is death. It is also a force of Nature. Without Chaos, there would be no change. Without change, there would be no need to adapt...and although this sounds as if it would be a fine thing indeed...it is not reality.

Reality dictates that patterns will be broken...that things will change. Anything that hopes to survive that change will need to adapt. Anything that does not adapt will become, at best, obsolete...and will, at worst, die. This is a dictate of the same Nature that patterns life so carefully. To survive change, patterns must be reordered. Call it adaptation...call it evolution...it is a required part of the grander, less obvious aspect of Nature's purpose. That said, it is easy to see why change is frightening...and so necessary.

Looking back through history, we can find many examples of adaptation and the fate of those who failed to adapt. Dinosaurs come to mind. Unable to tolerate the new conditions forced upon them, they perished. Many extinct species are those that failed to adapt to the new rules of life forced upon them by the never-ending growth and change of the world around them. The evolution of humanity is a handbook of change.

I often wonder if humanity isn't also the most effective agent of chaos ever created...still, humanity did adapt and survive. Because humans are social creatures, those changes often required larger interacting groups...from families to tribes to towns to nations. Humanity grouped itself according to beliefs and territories in order to procreate and grow in strength and numbers. To be great in number was to be protected somewhat from chaos, both nature's and your neighbors'. As the groups (and the weapons) have become larger, humanity has been forced to reevaluate the effectiveness of violence in containing chaos and has begun to learn the value of cooperation. Cooperation between peoples has allowed a pooling of knowledge that is changing the face of the world at an unprecedented rate.

The requirements of change in our present society seem even more implacable and demanding than those found in the past. Our world is virtually exploding with chaotic forces as a result of our technological growth. We are inundated with new information through every form of media we can imagine and make. Communication has become a chaos agent...a force for change to which we must adapt. We can no longer remain comfortable in our ignorance of each other's thoughts and deeds. This requires new learning, relearning, and a great deal of discomfort. How many of us have had the feeling that everything we know is wrong? If this is so, how can we possibly feel prepared to function adequately in our own surroundings? Where are the comfortable rituals of our ancestors? What is truth worth if it changes weekly?

This is the core of our fear. It is the fear of the unknown. What we cannot understand, we fear. We fear it because we do not know how to protect ourselves from it...or even if we need protection. To go up against the unknown is to risk learning the hard way if it can hurt us or not. This seems to me to be a circular dilemma...for if we never face the unknown, we can never do more than fear it...so it feeds itself. We will never be rid of that fear. On the other hand, facing it does not necessarily mean we can go merrily on our way as before. It may turn out that it is exactly as harmful as we imagined. It may require a learning whole new set of rules in order to deal with what we find. That doesn't promise much comfort, does it? And what if...as most often seems to be the case...our fears are totally unfounded? How embarrassing is that? No...much better to bar the door, close the windows, and keep it all out, right?

Wrong. In my opinion what you don't know can hurt you...or even worse, hurt others. Ignorance born of fear can be one of the most destructive forces in our relationships with each other. If we ever hope to achieve a total understanding and cooperative coexistence between all peoples we will have to adapt. We will have to examine and reexamine our beliefs and overcome our fears. We will have to learn to tolerate and understand our differences, and to reinforce and to cherish our sameness. Conscious adaptation and willingness to change (transmutations if you will) are our best hope for the future.

Isn't the idea of a cooperative, tolerant world worth facing and overcoming our fears?

Table of Contents

Letter to the Author: