What we fear, controls us. Consider the following story. Posted on 08/06/2014 3:36:18 AM PDT by markomalley
What we fear, controls us. Consider the following story.
An aerosol propellant called trichloroethane which was used in spray cans of many household cleaners, is toxic when the product is used improperly. Back in the 1980s, teenagers discovered they could get high by spraying the cleaner into bags and breathing in the propellant fumes.
A label on the can clearly warned of death or serious injury if the product was inhaled. But the young people who inhaled it, simply ignored these sorts of warnings, leading to a number of deaths.
The president of the aerosol company was told by his lawyers to make the warning larger. But the president argued against this since the warning was clear enough now, but was simply being ignored. He said, “Death and serious injury do not seem very real to most young people, thus they do not fear them.” “Instead,” the company president said, “Lets consider: What do kids worry about more than death or injury?…How they look, of course!”
Thus the company president directed that the warning say, “Inhaling the fumes of this product may cause death, extreme hair loss, or facial disfigurement.” But the attorney objected that the warning was a lie. “No,” said the company president, “It is not a lie. After death, extreme hair loss and facial disfigurement do in fact follow.”
The new warning really scared the target audience, and the liability claims against the aerosol company dropped to zero.
What we fear, controls us. Satan knows this, so do marketers. And while the story here features a company using fear to save people, the more frequent use of fear is to control people for less noble purposes.
A good bit of marketing does not merely target our needs, but our fears. Thus many commercials begin their appeal by subtly indicating that we are not pretty enough, not popular enough, might have bad breath, and that we haven’t really lived and will not reach our potential unless we use “Product X.” If we do not have or use “Product X” we are inadequate, our life is a failure and others will surpass us, or look and be more successful than us. Other commercials warn us of every disease, calamity and possible trouble and, after inciting these fears, offer to sell us medicines, insurance, alarm systems and financial securities.
Of themselves, these sorts of appeals are not evil, but they do show how effective fear is at motivating and even controlling us. Companies spend billions on these commercials because they know that they work.
Satan too uses fear, especially the fear of rejection to control us. Most of us have a natural desire to get along with others and to avoid unnecessary conflict with others or the world. But given our fallen nature we have this desire to a great fault, and the desperate desire to fit in and be approved is one of the deepest wounds in the human heart. So pervasive is this sinful drive of fear that I have often wondered why it isn’t the “Eighth Deadly Sin.” As a sinful drive, this fear leads us to countless other sins.
So much do we fear rejection and not being popular that we will sin in very serious ways to attain the approval of others and the world. Young girls will give away their bodies to mere boyfriends to be approved. Young men will join gangs, and get in all sorts of trouble to be approved and accepted. People will spend enormous amounts of money buying things they cannot really afford to impress people they do not really even know or like. People will walk up to a group engaged in very ugly gossip or unchaste conversation and join right in to gain entrance to the group. People will dress and act immodestly, even if it is uncomfortable because everyone else is doing it, and they must do this to be accepted and approved.
The list could go on, but you get the point. What we fear, controls us.
Well, God has a solution. Fear the Lord. Its a pretty good deal actually, since fearing the One Lord is easier and lighter than fearing ten thousand people, possibilities and things. One, or ten thousand? ….Hmm, I think I’ll choose the fear of the Lord. And while the fear that comes from Satan and the World is often a sinful fear, the Fear of the Lord is a saving fear!
To be sure, the Lord would prefer us to have something more than cringing servile fear (i.e. fear of punishment). But if that’s all you’ve got, start there. (More on this topic here: Servile Fear is Salutary Fear) The Lord will begin a process of perfecting your fear with increasing love, so that it becomes more the filial fear of wonder and awe, rooted in a love for God that fears offending someone we love, and who has been so good to us.
Yes, what we fear will control us. But it is so much better to be controlled by the Lord who loves us than by Satan who hates and lies to us, or the world that doesn’t really care about us. Choose the Fear of the Lord and let him gently and lovingly take control.
Msgr Pope ping
It got so bad that our entire 7th grade team 4 teachers with over 90 years of combined teaching were at our wits end.
I eventually talked with my parish priest and he gave me the best advice I ever got. He told me, NEVER let anyone take away your inner peace, if they take that from you, they control you.
It still was my worst year of teaching but it somehow made it easier to deal with.
bump
Litany Against Fear
-Dune
“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”
Ping!
What an awesome meditation.
Thanks for posting his blogs. He always has something great to say.
Thank You for your faithful posting of Msgr Pope’s messages.
:-)
Fear of social rejection is being deliberately inculcated into our children in school. There is a difference between “social rejection” and not getting along without undue conflict.
All you need to get along is good manners, which are no longer being taught at home or school. Instead children are indoctrinated to supplant the self respect achieved through personal achievement with social acceptance. In other words, people are being reduced to perpetual adolescence, and subservience.
It’s time to just grow up.
Read the ways in the article.
With the other seven deadly sins:
1.Pride is an excessive belief in one’s own abilities.
2.Envy is wanting what others have, be it status, abilities, or possessions.
3.Gluttony is the desire to eat or consume more than you require.
4.Lust is a powerful craving for such as sex, power and money.
5.Anger is the loss of rational self-control and the desire to harm others.
6.Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain.
7.Sloth is laziness and the avoidance of work.
In some societies it has been instilled for hundreds of years. In Japan they have many sayings similar to “the nail that sticks up gets the hammer”.
Shame is a significant driver and many rise to power there by learning how to use it. These “users” don’t know how to deal with people who aren’t afraid, and will instead target those around them to attempt to reassert themselves through guilt instead of shame.
There are social norms for appropriate behavior and interaction with others that demonstrate mutual respect, and then there are social conformance norms which are attempting to control behaviors and actions.
Good post.
Bump
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