- Feb 16, 2002
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A person once decided to build the safest place to live in the world, as a large mansion. Every window was barred, every door was locked with at least 20 locks, there were alarms everywhere, as well as warning signs on almost everything, and angry-looking guards to guide people around so they would be safe.
The person named the house "Fear" and promoted it as the safest place to live, where no problems existed and everyone was "good."
For a while, living in Fear was somewhat good, or at least it appeared so to those on the outside looking in. No one did anything that they were not there to do, no one dared ignore an alarm or warning sign, and people seemed to be at their best.
However, life in Fear soon became intolerable. People became afraid to leave their sections of work, then their rooms, and finally they became afraid to leave even their beds out of fear of breaking something, doing something wrong or not planned, or incurring the wrath of an arbitrary ruler seeking to make them pay anyway.
The people living in Fear now never invited anyone else in, or did so and failed, because they were afraid of outsiders or anyone who was an outsider noticed the glazed eyes, the downcast heads, and the general sense of hopelessness present and wanted no part of it.
So Fear's residents resorted to telling everyone else that only people in Fear would get the best God had to offer. That drew a few people, but most of these would leave in disgust as Fear's residents had finally invented an amusement to take their minds off of their isolation and sadness: they now slandered each other with the condemnation once reserved for outsiders.
Some would even sound an alarm on other residents or make up something that they would break because it was impossible not to break just to see what the reaction would be, or to bring themselves honor over the person they singled out.
Finally, life in Fear had reached the point where the residents could take it no longer. Some pulled every alarm in sight trying to distract others from their own presumed shortcomings, while others, sick of the alarms and warning signs that they saw did them no real good and much harm, broke everything and ran away never to be seen again. Others simply sat around and cried, because they had no idea how to live or think without someone telling them what to do.
Life in Fear was no life at all. The promise of absolute safety led to absolute terror, the "good" became "good in the worst sense of the word," outsiders would laugh or cry at the remaining people inside that could not or would not escape, and most of those who left had no desire to ever knowingly serve anything or anyone again after being so mercilessly ruled over.
In the end, there was nothing more to fear than Fear itself.
The person named the house "Fear" and promoted it as the safest place to live, where no problems existed and everyone was "good."
For a while, living in Fear was somewhat good, or at least it appeared so to those on the outside looking in. No one did anything that they were not there to do, no one dared ignore an alarm or warning sign, and people seemed to be at their best.
However, life in Fear soon became intolerable. People became afraid to leave their sections of work, then their rooms, and finally they became afraid to leave even their beds out of fear of breaking something, doing something wrong or not planned, or incurring the wrath of an arbitrary ruler seeking to make them pay anyway.
The people living in Fear now never invited anyone else in, or did so and failed, because they were afraid of outsiders or anyone who was an outsider noticed the glazed eyes, the downcast heads, and the general sense of hopelessness present and wanted no part of it.
So Fear's residents resorted to telling everyone else that only people in Fear would get the best God had to offer. That drew a few people, but most of these would leave in disgust as Fear's residents had finally invented an amusement to take their minds off of their isolation and sadness: they now slandered each other with the condemnation once reserved for outsiders.
Some would even sound an alarm on other residents or make up something that they would break because it was impossible not to break just to see what the reaction would be, or to bring themselves honor over the person they singled out.
Finally, life in Fear had reached the point where the residents could take it no longer. Some pulled every alarm in sight trying to distract others from their own presumed shortcomings, while others, sick of the alarms and warning signs that they saw did them no real good and much harm, broke everything and ran away never to be seen again. Others simply sat around and cried, because they had no idea how to live or think without someone telling them what to do.
Life in Fear was no life at all. The promise of absolute safety led to absolute terror, the "good" became "good in the worst sense of the word," outsiders would laugh or cry at the remaining people inside that could not or would not escape, and most of those who left had no desire to ever knowingly serve anything or anyone again after being so mercilessly ruled over.
In the end, there was nothing more to fear than Fear itself.
