“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.” — Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher
Fear is shadow, not substance. Unfortunately every man, woman or child out there is commonly living with fear, either consciously or unconsciously. Our consumption-based economy (and its accompanying marketing machine) practically relies on it. Real fear — whose root word is horror/danger — is based on our biological sense of physical fear, a genuine thing to be concerned about. When true danger present itself, such as an onrushing vehicle or a sudden flare up of fire, we act appropriately and immediately. This is healthy and normal. There’s no phobia or anxiety. What we’re talking about rather, is psychological fear, the anticipated attack on our well-being, our ideologies and our sense of security that frightens us, even though none of it may be real or will ever come to fruition. It’s the mind and its thoughts that terrorize us. We must be careful not to let it blanket us in darkness.
“There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” — Leonard Cohen, lyrics from the song Anthem
As practicing artists, we have more than our share of psychological fear. Both financial and social insecurity plague nearly everyone of us, almost regularly. Conflicted by the need to survive versus being true to ourselves, we’re always debating how much we must compromise our creativity and ethics in order to maintain security. We take the job/project that’s unappealing or morally questionable. We might also change our art or working methods to accommodate financial gain or even just to satisfy social relationships; going independent, in thought or practice, threatens the security of the being part of a tribe. We all want to belong whether we admit it or not.
Is it any wonder why most of us are so pessimistic? In a world absolutely consumed with materialism and almost fully preoccupied with the “me and the mine” (which entails continual competition with each other) it’s almost impossible to feel secure and confident as we move towards a fast changing and nearly unpredictable future. How will our skills hold up? Will the job or career we have currently be enough to weather the storm we know is coming given the near logarithmic growth in technology? As artificial intelligence, robotics and bio-engineering become a bigger and bigger part of our everyday lives, most of us, including our governments, have no reliable game plan to face what’s coming. This, of course, sits on top of the background of a world population approaching 8 billion people, record levels of global debt and a climate crisis.
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” ― Soren Kierkegaard, Philosopher
So how do we adapt or live? Can we find the right job, skill or trick to overcome our discomfort and to calm our nerves? Most of us just accept or ignore our predicament by being preoccupied with menial tasks, labour and trivia. Others escape via entertainment, drugs/alcohol or any host of vices. Still others find slightly better means, such as religion, meditation, creative hobbies or sports. In truth, none of it has any sort of real sustaining power to overcome our anxieties. Because, to deny our fear is to make them stronger. And since we continue to endorse the existing systems, our fears will continue to exist or even magnify. This partly explains why we are so divisive; the harder we try to escape and build an ideology to deal with our fears, the more defensive we become. Anyone or any group who threatens our ideologies by disagreeing with us or present facts we don’t want to hear, makes us angry and hateful. This is terribly destructive for the creative soul and terrible for humanity.
“Our longing to transcend death inflames violence toward each other.” ― Sheldon Solomon, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life
Personally, I suspect the only way to deal with our fears is to stare them down. Just by seeing them, as clearly as we can, observing the reality of it with as little prejudice as possible opens up our minds and frees us. For this to be possible of course, requires absolute humility, the kind of intellectual humility and moral courage that says “I don’t know” or that “I might be wrong.” It’s okay to not know. Since the future is undecided, it means also that there are decisions to be made. And we can’t wait for someone to save us. History has shown the dangers of wishing for the demigod. In fact, wishful thinking, biased towards one’s already conditioned belief system, is at the root of all ideologies. We have to make up our own minds.
“Reality thinking cannot operate without concurrent and supporting fantasies.” — Susan Isaacs, Psychoanalyst
Ultimately the answer to our difficulties comes down to how each one of us thinks and acts individually. We know that hate and fear can spread virally, but so can goodness. Quantum physics is already proving that the world is one gigantic unified field and that local reality is false; in other words, we are all connected and it’s near impossible for us to individually see the complete truth. Therefore its likely too presumptuous to say that man is guaranteed to destroy ourselves and this planet. That very well may happen. The trend doesn’t look good. But trends change. I believe the moment we give up and begin to show hopelessness or indifference to our plight and the plight of others, we increase the odds of failure. Man divided magnifies violence. The history books are filled with tales of oppressors who have exploited fear in the populace. Divide and conquer is an age old war tactic. Hence, we must resist the stickiness of fear’s web of deceit.
There must be faith. We know this when we make our art. As soon as we lose belief in our efforts, the moment we fail to care, then honest effort gives way to lethargy; we fail to plan, don’t bother to practice and execute with no discipline or energy. Everything starts with that first step and every moment is a first step. We know this to be true, and if it’s true with our work, its likely true for everything else we do. Hence we must persist in our resistance to doom and gloom pessimism. Our psychological well-being requires it. A mindset of failure guarantees failure. Never let fearful thoughts weigh on the heart. That’s when it gets to be too hard and too painful to bear. We’re all fragile souls and we need to protect our souls. When the mind is too full of itself with its fears, strategies, and logic — there’s no space for it to operate properly and we lose the ability to see with clarity. In art and animation, we know that it’s the space between shapes, the space between moments of action, that give our work sense and meaning, making it beautiful. Otherwise it’s just a big o’ mess. The mind, too, requires the same kind of well-balanced hospitable environment. Over-rationalizations prevent us from giving our brains a chance to move freely. A mind frozen in its hubris can never see the difference between truth and illusion no matter how hard it looks.
“There is no one more logical than the lunatic, more concerned with the minutia of cause and effect. Mad men are the greatest reasoners we know, and that trait is one of the accompaniments of their doing. All the vital processes are shrunken into the mind.” — Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death