Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

No emotion is more based in genetic conservation than fear. Fear triggers our primordial fight-or-flight response via a cauldron of visceral chemical reactions that have successfully protected homo sapiens as they evolved. All responses, from the unconscious to the cognitive, are intended to reduce fear, and people will do whatever they have to make fear go away. Modern humans are no less fearful than our ancestors, maybe more so since we have little relative experience with real danger, which is why we are frighted of so many pretend dangers: bike helmets, Identity Theft, GMO food.

Because of our fear of fear, security is the primary imperative. The impetus for forming a society is for protection: more than companionship, more than sustenance, more than control; because fear is the operational emotion of our instinct for survival. This is why fear can be so successfully exploited by politicians, and why inanity can overcome logic; because our instinct overwhelms our reason. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we have become so successful at protecting everyone from fear, that most people have lost perspective about where security comes from; that the primary weapon against fear is violence.