What Good Is Fear?
Carlos Santana is one of the great musicians of the past half century. But for some reason, perhaps due to a systemic flaw in human civilization, famous musicians almost always lose touch with reality. Today, Carlos Santana sent the following John Lennon homage out to his thousands of Facebook followers.
What would the world be Without FEAR
1) There would be no WAR
2) There would be no hatred
3) There would be no separation
>From your own light
4) There would be no lack of anything
5) There would the end of the illusion that there is not enough for everyone
6) There would be only one flag as all countries & nationalities would live as 'one'.
7) There would be visible rainbow angels everywhere
8) All people would be happy & at peace
Please feel free to add your own
By Carlos and Cindy
(The elegant simplicity of this version of human nature is reminiscent of the old hit War by Edwin Starr.)
From what I could tell, the response from Santana's fans to this claptrap in the comment section was overwhelmingly positive. As conservatives and libertarians, of course, we know this is folly. Or perhaps, because we know this is folly, we are conservatives or libertarians. Economic scarcity is real. Familial affection and tribal behavior are in our genes. Rainbow angels, based on the current best evidence, remain invisible.
But the biggest whopper here is scapegoating fear as the root of all evil. Fear is a natural, healthy human emotion. It evolved (or was given to us by God) to help us survive in a dangerous world. It is an unreasoning instinct that protects us from harm, drives us to improve, and prevents us from doing stupid things.
I would like to ask my fellow Riconizens, besides the three vague reasons I gave above, what good is fear to you? Or, if you are so inclined, what bad?
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Comments:
Feb '11
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Nobody's mentioned Carlos's penchant for wearing Guevara T-shirts. Plenty of folks experienced fear when Uncle Che was rockin' the revolution.
That said, I've always been a fan of the music.
Apr '11
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Carlos is a permanent member of the Guitar Hero pantheon, but he should take a word of advice frequently offered to another in that hallowed hall, Frank Zappa: "Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar."
Mar '11
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Liberals are, at their core, Utopians. The bigger the liberal, the bigger the Utopian. And musicians tend to be some of the most liberal of all.
Apr '11
Re: What Good Is Fear?
If we didn't have Fear who would the Green Lantern Core fight against?
Also...fear leads to anger, anger leads to hatred and hatred leads to the Dark Side of the Force. The Dark side of the Force inturn seems to lead to an assertive central government providing for its citizens and employing millions of people in government construction projects. So Fear leads to liberal economic policies....
Feb '11
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Fear is like any other emotion. Taken in moderate amounts, it is a good thing. Taken to extremes, it is not. Too much fear can keep people from getting out of from under their bed in the morning (of course then they have to fear the bed falling in on them). Too little fear makes for tragedies: Look ma, no hands, splat.
Apr '11
Re: What Good Is Fear?
I think a certain level of fear is healthy in all our lives. Some jack-wagon mentioned in the comments section of another website that he disagreed that with the idea that fear was a great motivator saying that fear (of losing your job in this case) stifles innovation and creativity.
Uhhh, no. I'm pretty sure fear has motivated a lot of innovation (if not all of it that matters). I could argue that fear of disease and famine brought about modern agriculture and medicine. People were definitely afraid of Steve Jobs. Fear of the Axis powers gave us the P-38 Lightning, the atomic bomb, Island Hopping, and George S. "Americans love a winner" Patton.
Is fear the only motivator? No. But it's a pretty darned good one in appropriate doses.
Edited on July 31, 2012 at 12:00amAug '10
Re: What Good Is Fear?
New Clear Option,I dialed Frank into Pandora the other day and was blown away. His stuff was so far ahead of most everything, whew !Carlos has great licks and absolutely none of them are not on a guitar.And I bet John McLaughlin is a tea party guy .
Mar '11
Re: What Good Is Fear?
That's a keeper.
Apr '11
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Technically he is right.
Jesus was not afraid and much of his life was occasioned by angels, even his own.
We would not have killed him had we not been afraid of him...
Apr '12
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Fear= recognition of danger.
It's bad when it's a false danger, or when we respond to it improperly. ("Proper" depends on the threat; a gun is no good when my daughter is trying to head-spike off the table, and trying to catch someone is no good when they're trying to rape me.)
That said, I've got to quibble with your opening statement:
famous musicians almost always lose touch with realityI
This is clear slander of musicians; famous almost anythings have a habit of losing touch with reality.
Actors, investors, theologians, zoologists, they all have a higher risk of being utterly disjointed from reality the more "famous" they become. (Example: the head county zoologist in my home valley was lecturing my mom on how bald eagles only eat fish... while in plain sight, one was "cleaning up" a dead calf. They eat carrion quite happily, but that didn't fit her ideology.)
Jun '10
Re: What Good Is Fear?
My comment goes to Santana's overarching message, the idea that we can create heaven on earth.
Is there even a shred of evidence to support that proposition?
I'm all for reasonable, private efforts to make the world a better place (starting in the place where you might actually accomplish something: your own home). That's something I believe is a basic duty of the humans. But a "better place" is still something that will never approach the utopian gobbledygook of Santana.
Edited on July 31, 2012 at 1:17amOct '10
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Mack The Mike
Joseph Eagar: I disagree that economic scarcity is real. The conservative line, as I understand it, is that conservatism leads to theremoval of economic scarcity. Even the very poor in America live like kings compared to third-world standards.
There's plenty to go around for those who work
This is a joke right? Or troll bait? · 11 hours ago
I put it badly. When I think of scarcity, I think of people starving the streets. That obviously doesn't happen in capitalist societies; thus my statement. I mean, even the very poor have computers and cell phones in this country.
Socialist systems suffer from too little to go around. They run out of other people's money, as Lady Thatcher liked to say.
Edited on July 31, 2012 at 1:25amOct '10
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Amy Schley
Now, free markets are great for the removal of poverty -- that is, everyone gets enough to survive. Also, under the free market, more people can live more comfortable, happier lives than under any other system.
But there aren't enough cows to have filet minion on every plate, enough land for everyone to have 40 acres, or enough colleges for everyone to have a degree. Thus, we have to choose what to buy with our scarce (aka limited) resources. · 7 hours ago
Oh. Capitalist societies lessen scarcity, though, through increases in productivity and innovation. As I understand it, our arguments against redistribution are based on the harm they do to productivity and innovation. I don't know the intellectual history here; would a lack of economic scarcity imply we wouldn't need investors and entrepreneurs? I guess I could see people thinking that way, though of course the idea is absurd; capital has to be maintained, after all.
Edited on July 31, 2012 at 1:36amApr '12
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Santana as a guitarist is underrated...Santana as a pundit, way overrated.
May '10
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Joseph Eagar
I don't know the intellectual history here; would a lack of economic scarcity imply we wouldn't need investors and entrepreneurs?
A lack of economic scarcity would mean everybody is able to obtain every good or service in any quantity they want at negligible cost, simultaneously.
See here for an explanation from Thomas Sowell.
Edited on July 31, 2012 at 2:07amSep '10
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Which i guess means scarcity can be a good thing and we don't always need to fear it.
Oct '11
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Fear is the whole organism's need to be away from a thing, with attendant physical sensations of course. Fear is as priceless as love, its opposite.
Handling fear is a learned skill, required of an adult. Without the facility to handle fear we remain children.
The leftist mind has recoiled from fear, and so is doomed to feel it always. Over time, such a mind develops the habit of fear and anger, which is hate.
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
Frank Herbert
Aug '10
Re: What Good Is Fear?
"7) There would be visible rainbow angels everywhere"
Double Rainbow...all the way.
Jun '10
Re: What Good Is Fear?
I'm afraid to say.
May '10
Re: What Good Is Fear?
Brian Watt
I'm afraid to say. · 12 minutes ago
The best thing about fear, if you ask me, is that it shuts up that Watt hooligan.