Fear vs. Society

Suddenly, you find yourself in a very intense situation – this could be life or death. Your heart begins to raceas the adrenaline starts pumping. Thousands of thoughts are streaming through your head and you don’t know what to do. A cold sweat begins to break on your forehead and… this could be the end, there are no more empty tables at the Cougareat and you’re going to have to sit by someone you don’t know. Sound familiar? Okay, maybe it’s not that serious in your case, but everyone, to some degree, has anxiety or even fear in certain social settings.

How about this one:

You are walking to class and there aren’t many people around, just the one person that happens to be heading the opposite direction as you. They’re coming right towards you. Clearly there won’t be any kind of a collision, even if there was it wouldn’t be fatal. Yet you feel more tense the closer you get. Looking away you brace yourself for… who knows what… and… nothing. What a relief you were able to dodge any kind of interaction with them.

Or:

Same scenario, but you feel a little daring. You actually look at the person that is coming towards you – Quick look away!!! You just made eye contact!!!... Whew! That was a close one.

Why does this matter? It’s not like it’s the end of the world because we avoid people we don’t know.

True. But it does prevent unity. Overcoming social fears is just plain good for society for that reason and not overcoming them, therefore, hinders our progress as a whole.

For example, Enoch was a very successful prophet that achieved the unachievable. He helped a whole city be lifted up into heaven. How? “Because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness,” (Moses 7:18).

Being of one heart and one mind – having unity – is key to a society’s success. After all, Enoch’s city was the most successful society in history.

The unity of this people began with the setting aside of fear. When the Lord called Enoch, his response was I “am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech.” (Moses 6:31). Like us, he was unable to face people confidently. Well, later on, when speaking of Enoch the people said, “a wild man hath come among us,” (Moses 6:38). Enoch got over his fear, good for him.

Not just good for him, though. If it weren’t for Enoch’s social courage, becoming a “wild man,” then the people never would have been called Zion, and never would have been lifted up. 

Is your inability to look a stranger in the eye and smile as you pass by keeping us from building Zion?

We are all brothers and sisters and, especially here at BYU, should be able to feel more comfortable around each other and instantly become friends, more or less, right?

And It Won't Let You Leave

Think back to a time when you watched a scary movie for the first time.  You were probably in high school watching it with a big group of friends; at least I hope you were.  No one likes watching scary movies by themselves. 

That is part of the social aspect that draws us all to the T.V. watching a horror film.  Our friends have a huge influence over us. They convince us to do things that will benefit us and they convince us to do things, like watching movies, which will give us nightmares for the next week. 

However, we all have fear toward our friends.  Nobody enjoys being judged by others, especially by our friends.  I believe this is part of the reason why we make ourselves sit for hours and watch something that will terrify us.  We fear that judgment from our friends.  We don’t want to look weak and vulnerable.

I know my first experience watching a scary movie was like that.  I did not want to watch that movie, but of course it was around Halloween and you have to watch scary movies at that time of year.  I was with a big group of my friends along with some people who I didn't know.  I definitely didn't want to look like I was afraid of just a fictional movie.  I had never been so extremely happy for a movie to end.  When the movie was over we all began talking about our favorite parts.  Most of them recapped the most terrifying scenes, while others of us did nothing but explain how grateful we were that the movie was over.

 

I know nobody completely enjoyed that film.  I remember seeing almost everyone covering their faces in the pillows, blankets, or the arm of the person next to them during various parts of the movie.  You don’t cover your face if you like the movie.

We all stayed through the entire movie, even though we were all scared.  We were all more scared of the judgment we would get from everyone else.  I know that is part of the reason I stayed the whole time; that, and my ride home was staying to finish the movie too.     

What is it?

As a child your imagination is active enough to create situations that make you afraid. When you turn off the lights at night, do you ever run and jump on your bed and hide under the covers just so the man under the bed won’t grab your leg? Do you ever shut your closet door but keep the light on just because you know they won’t come out in the light?

There may be something in your closet or under your bed but as you grow older, those fears turn into fears of the real world. They may be something that you de test but for some reason, you are drawn to them and find them appealing. Horror films and bloody bodies are an attraction to the humane psyche. Even though there are not monsters hiding in your closet anymore, there is still a closet full of fears that keep reappearing in our lifetime. These fears range from death to social interaction. It may come across as amusing or terrifying.

Fear has many different aspects:

· Is it the amusement we find in scaring others?

· Is it the fear of interacting with people we don’t know?

· Is it the torturing and killing of humans that keep our eyes glued to the screen?

· Is it the social pressure we get from our friends?

We want to analyze all these different types of fears and answer the question “why we fear?” It may come from the monsters in your closet or under your bed but they may also come in different forms. Everyone has their own individual monster that makes them afraid to open their closet door. It may be a monster of social fear, a monster of social pressure, a monster of entertainment, or a monster of the morbid fascination of horror films. It is our goal to explore those different monsters hiding in our rooms and figure out what they want.

With a Cruel Sense of Humor

Let’s take a moment and devote our discussion to the most satisfying, most fulfilling, most endearing form of fear. It is the instantaneous high followed by a sudden low; it’s the startle—the scare. And whether it is the victim, the scarer, or an anticipating viewer, someone ends up splitting their side laughing.

What is so funny about making someone scream, jump, or hopefully pee their pants? The infinitely wise Steve Carell explains on the Ellen Degeneres Show that when you scare someone, “It is a person at their very essence.”

As human beings, we are naturally curious. We like to predict, observe, and discover. Out of all of the animals in the animal kingdom, we alone have managed to produce the best scientists, explorers, and philosophers (how about that?). And what better discovery to make than one’s genuine reaction to a simply unexpected stimulus?

How about we put the scientific method to the test and conduct a few experiments?

Ask yourself these questions as you watch the following video:

• How do you predict the the victim will react to the scare?

• How did the victim react?

• Why did I react the way I did? 

Why did you just laugh at someone else’s pain, and better yet, why did she laugh at her own pain? Did you notice that the more unexpected the reaction, the funnier it is? A scream is a decent scare yield, but falling to the floor! Well, that’s golden.

Now, as fun as playing with science is, I want to get down to the philosophy of the scare—the “person at their very essence.” What is so fun about genuine, yet harmless fear? What is this, as Ellen herself puts it, “safe kind of scared?”

It is learning about another human being. As much as you may say, “I’m not a people person,” let’s face it—getting to know people is an integral part of life. It’s what facilitates friendship, romance, admiration, and even detestation (admit it--as a culture, we have fun criticizing others).

Getting to know each other is what we do. And when the pretense of a calm, collected, and confident person is stripped down to a screaming, defenseless mess, bonding takes place, and we are all, once again, merely human.

Hungry for Horror

As a society, do we use fear for a different purpose than the one it was meant to serve?

Instead of a defense mechanism invoked by physical danger, fear has become a primary source of entertainment. Whether it is a haunted house, a roller coaster, or watching a terrified prank victim, entertainment is getting scarier and scarier.

Because of society's increased desensitization to shock, amusement is changing the threshold of terror.

What will it take to satisfy our culture's appetite for fear?

Social Fear

Today’s modern America has brought with it a shift in social norms as virtually all people, to some degree, have developed a fear of human interaction due to a lack thereof. 

And it's Dead and Hanging...

It’s a Friday night and all of your friends have gathered together to watch a movie. As they start flipping through the selection, something catches their eye. A Horror film. Automatically their heart starts to beat faster and their hands start to tremble with excitement. As they press play on the DVD the lights dim and the room is dead silent. As the movie begins, slow and dark music begins to play and the rocking chair in the film is somehow moving on its own. A ghost is floating above you in the darkness, and there are eyes staring at you through the walls.

These images portray a sense of fear we fell when we watch scary movies. But our eyes stay glues to it as the murderer cuts open its victim.

We should often ask ourselves:

• · Why do we watch them?

• · Why do we purchase them if we know we are going to be scared?

• · Why do we like to watch people suffer in films?

• · Why do our eyes stay glues to the TV when it gets bloody?

• · What makes us like to watch them?

“Most people like to experience unpleasant emotions.”

Although it may not be a positive outcome, we still watch them and we still keep our eyes glues to the screen. We can’t help it. Our eyes will not turn away from the scene.

“These impacts are felt by adults as well as children by the well-adjuster as well as the disturbed. They may linger well after the house lights go up – sometimes for years. And they may be anything but pleasurable."

Although many people have nightmares about horror films and bloody bodies, people still watch them because fear is an attraction to the human psyche, even if it means long term negative effects.