Nil İrigül
Do we respect what we fear? Why are there so many different cultures and religions? Why are bears a symbol in many cultures when worms aren’t? Are worms lame? Why are we still scared of stronger animals when with today’s technology we can defeat them with just a snap? Why can’t we get over our past of being less modernized and accept that culture is evolving and we can be secular and innovative?
I’m a human, the most lame animal that has walked the planet. Well, that’s because of my potential. Humans have only one thing that sets them apart. Our minds and thinking abilities. I think that sets the bar a bit too high for humans to achieve in terms of existing to the fullest. The other animals don’t care if they live to their full potential or not. They don’t know their full potential. Well neither do we, but at least we know we can always do better. Their full potential is nothing compared to that of humans. They survive. We live. But somehow while surviving they contribute more to the world than humans do living.
We spend our lives creating wars and fighting wars inside and outside of ourselves that have no meaning. I think that’s why we worship and exaggerate animals who aren’t us that have more existential meaning. We’re jealous of them because even though they don’t have free will they are still living more meaningful lives than we are.
Also, while being this jealous of animals we somehow find a way to discriminate against them as well. Why are we integrating worthy and glorious features with big and scary animals while we integrate lower qualities such as being governed or being looked down upon with smaller animals? I think there is more behind this thought than one might want to look into.
We ignore the quiet animals. That’s because we think that they don’t contribute much to the ecosystem and we just have to be the best. Well, that is so not true. I think even worms have a better impact on the ecosystem than humans do. They help the soil health and plant growth significantly, which we work hard to destroy. The reason we don’t worship them is because their power isn’t obvious or destructive. We aren’t intimidated by them.
Instead, we choose to worship bears. The more destructive part of the ecosystem. The part we aim to achieve. Why? We’re scared of them.
We have the capacity for empathy and that is what we should be working on. Instead of working hard to be better than each other, we need to work hard to be better together. We are also creative. Neither a bear nor a worm has the ability to come up with new ideas. Our imaginations are endless. We need to cooperate, then nothing can stop us. Except ourselves of course. Our egos.
Our egos are forcing us to put all these qualities aside and focus on division and conflict. We just have to be the best. That’s the truth. Don’t lie and say you wouldn’t like to be the most dominant of all. Be the most respected. All this is linked to our fear of mortality and weakness.
The animals don’t sit down and think about death. They don’t know what mortality or the afterlife is. We do and we are terrified of it. So terrified that it completely shuts down our good qualities and makes us so scared of weakness that we turn those fears and work each day to pass them on somewhere else. Sometimes by creating rituals to ease our minds and to hope that we can make a difference about the one thing we can’t control. Death.
We fear big animals because they are stronger and we just have to be the best. Why are cultures using these bears we fear as symbols? Why do we respect those we fear?
Bears are a huge cultural symbol for many different cultures and tribes. Why? Is it because they are big and strong? Probably. With today’s technology, I can easily take a bear down. A gun? Taser? Worst comes to worst, I’ll throw a computer at it. Why are we using our potential to create guns? Wars? Is it to fight bears? No, it’s to fight other humans. That is so idiotic.
Would you be able to start breakdancing in front of a political figure you hate with all your guts? No? Is it because you respect them or fear them because of their power? Even if you say respect I think otherwise. Of course, you can respect people you love, you should, but you respect a lot of people you fear as well. Bears. Some cultures symbolize them because they respect them, and some find that a form of showing strength is wearing the fur of a bear. You defeated that bear so now you are stronger. You are more dominant. You have to dominate them because you fear them and that’s the only way you can get over your fear.
Every. Single. Thing that humans do. It’s to gain strength. Socially, physically, mentally. Some cultures like the Finnish culture symbolize bears as a way of reconnecting with nature. They see them as connections with the earth and the forests so they recreate rituals. But why create these rituals and shape our lives according to them? Why are they so important to us culturally and internally?
It’s because rituals and religions are the only things that give us control over the uncontrollable. Not being in control drives us crazy. You can’t control death. Or nature. Neither can I. This makes us mad. There has to be a way we can. Well, there isn’t but you can fool yourself and think that there is. Rituals.
Making rituals of the things we fear such as nature and death by symbolizing them and making the abstract concrete. Bears, eagles, lions… I could go on. These are all symbols of our biggest fears. These are the animals that overcame the fears no human could. But now in modern society, I could easily disprove any ritual or religion you throw at me with science. That doesn’t matter and I won’t. Because if you believe in that, then that’s your coping mechanism with your fears and I have to respect that. Even though deep down maybe you know that the rituals you make or the religion you believe in cannot possibly be true, you have to ease your conscience with them, otherwise you might go insane.
The last thing I have to talk about is admiration. For some people the root of the fear isn’t their emotion of being scared, it’s admiration, which I think is a crucial topic I can’t finish this essay without talking about. Until now I said you respect what you fear and worship it. There is one case where this isn’t true.
You can worship something you admire. Which is a healthier way of coping. You can admire how a bear can easily survive in the wild, how much strength it holds and most importantly how independent it is. All humans are dependent. We created a society where everyone depends on one another. You go to work every day, you depend on the bus driver. The bus driver depends on you to take money home. The cycle goes on. Bears don’t have that. If a bear dies, it dies. The grief of the bear doesn’t affect the lives of the bears around it for generations to come. In conclusion, we respect what we fear or admire. We have to dominate everything around us and our egos control everything we do. But we’re not full of those things. We are also capable of empathy, loving each other, focusing on things we like, creativity, coexisting, cooperating and peace. We just have to learn what to focus our energy on. Maybe then we can reach our full potential.