Fear and Faith

In some earlier posts I talked about fear, and how that drives some of the insanity we're seeing today.

The fear of scarcity, the feeling that there's not enough to go around - those feelings make it easier for people to justify doing whatever they can to secure resources. For themselves. For their families.

I got mine, how you do?

Some of the overpopulation fears feed into this, too. And perhaps contributes to some of the eugenicist views (though that also seems to be tied in to the idea that some people just don't deserve to live. A rather nasty thought process to live by, since that means you pretty much always have to prove that you deserve to live, too. Get too old and weak? Guess you're no longer contributing and deserve to die, then. Oh, wait... but that wouldn't apply to you, would it? It's just an excuse to justify accepting the deaths of other people.)

When I think about how to address those fears, it makes me think of faith.

Faith - that we can find an answer.

Faith - that there is a solution, one that won't force us to make choices about who lives and who dies.

It's like that hydrologist said about the water issues with the Helmand River - there's a way to take care of everyone, it just requires cooperation and coordination.

Fear of scarcity, fear that there isn't enough, fear that you won't be able to survive and that your loved ones are at risk - all of that prevents us from cooperating and coordinating and seeking alternatives. 

If you have faith that there is a way, you'll keep searching to find it. 

This applies to all sorts of things - like lying propaganda. If you had faith that you could find a way while keeping God's commandments (to put this in religious terms), then you wouldn't have to lie to achieve your goals. And you wouldn't have to pretend that your lying is justified, or serving God, either. 

Saying "they started it" and "everyone else is doing it, and we can't win without it" betrays your lack of faith. It keeps you from continuing to search for an alternative, and allows you to justify to yourself doing the exact sorts of things you hate others for doing.

But let's bring this back to fear and scarcity -

Worried we might not have enough water? Think we might have water wars? 

Couldn't that push us to find solutions, like perhaps cheaper and more extensive desalination plants?

Worried about overpopulation? I'm sure we can get pretty creative if we put our minds to it. 

Or is the issue that you don't want to find a better solution? 

You don't want to put in the work, to maybe even sacrifice your time, or money, to find something better?

It's pretty easy to throw up your hands and say "that's just the way the world works", isn't it?