The Unknown is Only Scary If You Choose to Be Afraid of It

The unknown is not positive or negative; it just is.Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

One reason, possibly the main reason, so many people fall for the lies of people like Trump is fear of the unknown. The world is moving so fast that people feel left behind, disregarded, and like they have zero control over any of it. Thus, the so-called powerful prey upon them and their fears to enrich themselves while fucking everyone else over.

This is easy to see when you take a step back and look at the Twentieth Century. In a hundred years, we went from the end of the Industrial Revolution and a world that had changed only slowly for centuries to the Information Age and a world instantly interconnected. In 1900, you were lucky if you could find out what was happening on the other side of the country in just a few days. By 1999, you could find out what was happening on the other side of the globe instantly.

The world has changed at unprecedented speed, and that speed has accelerated. In just 50 years, we’ve seen dramatic shifts from small pockets of information you could spend days seeking to global knowledge in the palm of your hand or on your wrist.

This has impacted everyone. While some see it as positive and progress, others see it as negative and fraught with the unknown. That’s been abused by many “in power” to expand their power via fear of the unknown. Yet the truth is, the unknown is only scary and negative if you choose to be afraid of it.

Fear is the default setting

You and I live in a fear-based society. Don’t believe me? Almost every message in politics directs you to fear this group, that organization, or those ideals. From there, you’re directed to blame those people, places, or things for all your ills and woes.

The whole message of Trump’s first campaign was that the country had fallen, and it needed to be resurrected to its former greatness. Then he and the GOP steered this to both subtly and blatantly claim that progress ruined us, and embracing the unknown made us weak.

The DNC is doing this now in certain elections where the established and status quo candidates are losing to newer progressive ones. Politics on both sides love to use fear of the unknown to unnerve us.

Fear this, fear that. If you don’t buy “X,” you will be lesser and disrespected. When you don’t use service “Y,” you’ll show yourself to be weak and unworthy. Vote this way or disappoint your faith, your family, and on and on. Fear, weaponized.

Fear of what? Suffering. When you get right down to it, it’s never the thing they’re telling you to be afraid of that’s the thing you fear. It’s the suffering you’ll experience if you allow this thing or that to occur.

All of it plays on the unknown and its potential to be scary and cause suffering.

Photo by Rabih Shasha on UnsplashThe unknown is only scary if you choose to be afraid of it

Those who came to North America from Europe had no idea what was west of this mountain range, that river, those lakes. They feared the unknown. Until someone overcame their fear and crossed the mountain, the river, or those lakes to the other side.

On a personal level, the unknown is part of growing up. As a child, your life as a teenager is unknown. When you’re a teen, your adult life is unknown. Once you reach adulthood, unknowns range from job security to relationships to conflicts both in and out of your control.

The unknown can be scary. What if you do “X” and that leads to suffering? Maybe doing “Y” will cause you pain on an emotional, mental, or spiritual level. These and more “What ifs” can be incredibly unnerving.

It’s easy to see how you might suffer due to this, that, or the other thing. However, that’s ultimately a choice.

The unknown can be approached as something to be feared or as something full of potential and possibilities. Yes, there might be snakes and scorpions on the other side of that hill. There might also be a breathtaking vista and a pile of gold over that hill. And you won’t know until you cross it.

Despite all the messages to the contrary, fear is a choice. Hence, you choose if the known is something to fear and avoid or reason with and explore.

Empowerment is power

Keeping people disempowered is how too many of those in power hold power. It’s all a bunch of bullshit, really, because when you’re empowered, you actively make more choices and decisions for yourself.

Why else do they gut the education system, target the “other” as the group to fear, and tell you “they” intend to take your guns, freedoms, and hard-earned whatever from you? Why do they attack being “woke” and giving a shit about other people, the environment, and things? It’s all about disempowerment.

The moment you choose to think and feel for yourself, you open yourself to empowerment. That’s power. Empowerment is how you can see through the bullshit and approach the unknown not with fear and trepidation, but curiosity and purposefulness.

The unknown is only scary if you choose to be afraid of it. When you look within yourself and apply active conscious awareness, you can see this more clearly. Then, with that clarity, choose for yourself how you approach the unknown. Then, the more you make active, mindful choices and decisions, the more you can show others that the unknown isn’t to be feared.

That’s how we might shift from a fear-based to a reason-based society. But it can only start with you and me.

Recognizing that the unknown is only scary if you choose to be afraid of it isn’t hard

It’s all about practicing active conscious awareness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and the positivity or negativity of your approach to direct your actions.

When you recognize and acknowledge that there always have been and always will be unknowns, and that the unknown itself isn’t scary, you can apply a mindful approach to it. Knowing that the unknown is always on the other side of growth and evolution, you can take control of your approach via active conscious awareness and not let fear of it overwhelm, unnerve, or distract you.

This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.

Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity — from the vast cylinder that exists between them — shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.

Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself opens the way for a positive approach and attitude via your actions. This can lead to realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.

The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.

Thank you for coming along on this journey.

This is the six-hundred-second (602) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, reblog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all my published fiction and non-fiction.

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