Fear of the dark

Is still with us in different forms.
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If we fail to understand something what do we do?
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We try harder to understand.
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But trying harder seldom works.
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Yet that is our typical response to failure.
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Both on the individual and collective level.
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When we fail to fulfil our New Year's resolutions.
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What do we conclude?
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We didn't try hard enough.
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We didn't apply enough willpower.
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Similarly, we act as though more technology.
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More laws.
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More vigilance will succeed where previous technology, laws, and vigilance failed.
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But greater effort from our present state of being only serves to reinforce that state of being.
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Using more force promotes the mentality of using force.
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Methods born of separation exacerbate separation.
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Does anyone today remember that World War One was fervently believed to be the "war to end all wars"?
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Despite that stupendous failure, equivalent logic lives on in the current "war on terror".
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Today this almost pathological fear of what cannot be directly examined and brought under control is evident in:
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External.
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Preferably mechanical
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Electronic, or chemical control.
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And in reality survives as a scientific equivalent of a much older atavism, fear of the dark.
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Letting go of control means, then, that in this new age, the Age of Fire, in which the circle of domesticity defined the human realm as the illuminated, is coming to an end.

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And this is where we are now, entering into the Age of Fire with precious little under control
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Being totally in the dark about the next financial disaster
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In the dark about the next global health disaster
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In the dark about climate change.
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When you think about it we are in the dark about most of the important things that impact our lives.
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Whether we will become once more at home in the dark:
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At home in mystery.
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In uncertainty.
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In unreasonableness.
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Or at least whether we will no longer fear to venture there remains to be seen.

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Most modern humans dislike change
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Most enjoy the illusion of security
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Trouble is the times we are in are unlikely to offer much security.
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They are though offering a lot of change in all areas of our lives.
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And like all fears fear of the dark is best overcome through knowledge.
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Do we have enough knowledge?
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Wisdom even, time will show!
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On an individual level it is up to us how we face the dark.
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How is it with you?