Fear is the key
For all the gymming that we do, and for all the psyching that we do to ourselves — that I am strong, I can survive as an individual, that I will never be a coward — there is an underlying uncertainty.
This uncertainty is complex. To define it would be foolish. Perhaps if we are ready to admit that this sliver of self-doubt is actually that primeval feeling of fear, then we would be more honest. However tough we are, fear is actually the key to our personalities. In fact, I would say, ever since I was born I have been fascinated with the feeling of fear — how it consciously and subconsciously affects people in so many ways.
If you are travelling in a car on a lonely highway and you see a very dirty, badly maintained truck with peeling paint, a hanging bumper and broken headlights coming at you from the opposite direction, that will scare you more than a slick, well-preserved truck, the sort that you see on the American highways. Rickety or stylish trucks, both will do the same damage if they hit you. Yet somewhere in your subconscious, you feel that the driver of the dirty truck doesn’t care so much about his vehicle. So he will not care about what happens to himself or to you. That fear is inescapable.
Also if you have observed when we leave home and go on a holiday for a few days, upon returning we open the lock and step inside. Fleetingly, a thought crosses our minds that the house may have been burgled and damaged during our absence.
This sort of inherent fear even extends to doing something quite safe like watching a horror film. Down the years, I have been surprised to hear that some people have this fear of stepping into an auditorium showing a film of the horror genre. Of these, one is the kind of person who will be scared even before he or she enters the cinema hall. The person connects to the intent of the film and the mind takes over after that.
Another type will be a somewhat macho guy who will keep challenging the film to scare him. This specimen is seen commonly booing and tittering during the silent moments, spoiling the element of tension for others. But at heart he is more scared than anyone else, so he tries to relieve his fear by becoming a nuisance.
Another type will not see most of the film, especially whenever it is scary. He will simply close his eyes. And there will be young couples who will use the scary film as an excuse to hug and kiss each other, as if they had been attacked by the ghosts and demons on screen.
Finally, there will be a guy who will just watch the film without any feelings, cynically and call all the goings on irrational and absurd. Such a sort of viewer does so because he has absolutely no imagination at all. Those who aren’t vulnerable are worthy of the four-letter word: DUMB.
Post new comment