Idiology and Fear

This pandemic has brought out the best and worst in us, the human race. Stories of kindness have been replaced more and more by news filled with protests and anger. Yes, these are precarious times we live in. So much uncertaintly has enveloped us over the past two years, raising fears to levels most of us have not seen or experienced in our lifetime. Fears relating to our health or the health of our loved ones, to fears of losing our so called rights and freedoms. Many of these fears were already primed by political turmoil and polarizaion in countries once considered to be well balanced and secure, while nations which have historically been agressors are begining to show their stripes again. True, leaders use times of great uncertainty to plot political or personal gains. Nothing new under the sun, it's always been this way throughout history. Creating fear has been a key strategy used to manipuate the masses, subtly instilling or reinforcing idiologies which are often formed against something, be it a system, people or demographic. What is idiology? It has been said that idiology is the lens through which a person views the world. It envelops a person's assumptions, expectations, beliefs and values. We as humans don't like uncertainty, particularly when it relates to our own lens through which we view the world. When something we view seems unclear, our mind seeks ways to focus our lens to create some certainty. Rather than accept the uncertainty, we oftentimes make assumptions. Assumptions are like seeds, sown into our minds by ourselves and others, mostly unchecked and often unnoticed. These assumptions create expectations for something to happen. It may be something we consider positive, though more often than not it's something which creates a sense of insecurity. Whether the expectation has a factual base at this point is often no longer relevent to the mind which has created its assumptions in the context of uncertainty and fear. Expectations turn into beliefs, which form the basis for our values. And this is where idiologies clash. When something seemingly comes against our values or beliefs, we become defensive or in extreem cases offensive. Rarely does the human mind think back and analyse the source of its assumptions and expectations when they have been entrenched in its beliefs and values. So what does the mind do? In a defensive or offensive action, it looks for evidence, regardless how weak the evidence may be, to support its values and beliefs. The greater the underlying insecurity the more active it becomes to find and create a sense of security. This often leads to forceful arguments in a mostly subconscious attempt to convince themselves while inscribing their beliefs upon others, where opposing views are not given much of any consideration. And it gives a sense of empowerment to the mind which succeeds in multiplying believers of its idiology. This is often how tyrants are born. But what if our minds were more open to accept uncertainty, to question the roots of idiologies and hold our beliefs a bit more loosely instead of clenched in our fists? I'll be the first to admit that i don't much like uncertainty. I'll also admit i've fought my share of idiologistic arguments in my earlier years, with sincere certainty my beliefs were the correct ones. With age i've learned the error of my ways, along with the errors in assumptions, expectations and beliefs which brought me there. It brought me to a place where i told my wife before we married, that i'm not certain about anything in this life. And in an odd way, my lack of certainty (outside of our love for one another) brought her a sense of security, in that i view life in a more loose and wholistic manner than within a confined or rigid idiology. Our idiologies, values and beliefs need to be examined and tested. We do a disservice to ourselves and others when we don't examine the assumptions and expectations our idiology is based on, nor give consideration to alternative views. If the assumptions and expectations are truly factual, we need not fear them being challenged or tested, as they should remain standing. However, what we need to fear are idiologies, beliefs and values -foremost in our own minds, that have been skewed by assumptions which are simply not true.