15 Minute Philosophy: Fear - What Are We Scared Of?
Another discussion with Manu Bazzano, therapist and Zen priest.
This week on 15 Minute Philosophy, I discuss the role fear plays in our lives with Manu Bazzano. For many people it’s a constant static that sounds beneath the surface of daily life, often invisible but powerful. Can we do anything to make our relationship with fear - which at some level is a healthy human instinct - more healthy?
Full transcript and video is beneath paywall.
Tim Lott (timlott56@gmail.com)
Hi Manu. Today, we're going to talk about fear, it’s very big subject, almost so big, it's quite hard to know where to start, but I would imagine in your practice as a therapist, it's something you have to deal with every day.
People are scared, people walk around in a state of anxiety and fear, that's presumably quite often why they come and see you.
I myself spent a lot of my youth in a state of fear, fear of the future, fear of other people, fear of women, fear of - I think fear of making a fool of myself was probably the biggest fear.
I suppose, in some ways I guess fear could be useful and sort of spurs you into action because you're running away from something and it makes you do something about it. But I also thought I spent so much time in the state of anxiety that I missed out on a lot of my life because I was too busy worrying about it.
And there was also, quite apart from those specific things I mentioned, a kind of free-floating fear that I couldn't name.
So, Manu, let me ask you this, can we escape fear? Should we try and escape fear? Is it useful or it it a sort of aberration?
@2:04 - Manu Bazzano
Okay, let me start from a different place. One of my favourite artists ever is Lou Reed. Lou Reed’s three maxims are first, ‘do not fear anyone’. The second is ‘always carry with you a fully functioning bullshit detector’, and three, ‘ be very, very tender’. I think the first, ‘do not fear anyone’, I think it's a very, very useful one.. Do not turn anyone into a greater, bigger, more powerful, more evil person that they really are. They are also human, vulnerable, making mistakes, doing stupid mistakes, hurting themselves, others, including us, and so forth. So I think that could be useful, seeing through to the humanity of the other person.
As for the other things you mentioned, certainly fear can be an ally. The question is, who rules over fear?
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