Fear
At man’s core there is a voice that wants him never to give in to fear. But if it is true that in general man cannot give in to fear, at the very least he postpones indefinitely the moment when he will have to confront himself with the object of his fear... when he will no longer have the assistance of reason as guaranteed by God, or when he will no longer have the assistance of God such as reason guaranteed. It is necessary to recoil, but it is necessary to leap, and perhaps one only recoils in order to leap better.
~ Georges Bataille (1897–1962), French novelist & critic.
Quoted in: “Two Values of Sade in Bataille’s Text”.
~ Georges Bataille (1897–1962), French novelist & critic.
Quoted in: “Two Values of Sade in Bataille’s Text”.
Comments
- Maktub, by Paulo Coelho
The reason i published this quote on fear is that it encourages you to face your fears, as opposed to making you believe that there is no such thing as fear. The truth is, whenever you feel afraid, scared, or daunted by something, pretending to be fearless is not gonna get u through it. At some point in yr life, you have to learn to face yr fears, and as they say... meet them, greet them, and defeat them. So, I say, don't fear the fear - embrace it, fight it, and let it go!
Sometimes we face our fears only to realize there was nothing to be afraid of.
Khany commented in one of your earlier posts that "the fear of a tumor can cause death" instead of the tumor itself.I would applaud the remark.It's so true. If not well attended the fear of a fear can leave us paralyzed before the fear has actually struck.
i agree to the extent that man tries to evade his fears and postpones having to confront them.
however, i don't believe that man is inclined not to give in to fear. in fact, i think often when we confront our fear we confirm its reality and readily give in to it.
my ex-roommate used to ask me, "don't you ever feel a strong urge to jump off the balcony or to run blindly across a busy highway?" now here is a man who truely doesn't want to give in to his fears! thank god most of us are not like him.
jumping off tall buildings and running through traffic are truely not in our best interest; in fact they can be fatal. by giving in to fear, i am not suggesting that we do not approach tall buildings or avoid traffic. but we give in to fear to the extent that we feel secure.
and more fundamentally, we fear transgressing the limits set by god. the fear is justified because the penalty is indeed severe. the more we confront our fear the more real it gets (to be sure, we temper our fear with hope in the mercy of god). my point is that i disagree with the statement that at man essentially resists giving in to fear.
i would restate the quotation as "at man's core he is anxious and impatient. in his haste he postpones confronting his fears. there is a voice in him that wants him never to give in to unjustified fears. upon realization of his fears, however, he often readily submits..."
there has to be some rationality behind a fear..like not jumping of a cliff out of fear of injury and not violating the rules set by Allah out of fear of punishment, more importantly out of fear(that comes out of love) of displeasing Allah...but i guess the author is referring the to the negative side of fear. Regardless I liked the point you brought forwards. JazakAllah khair.
Consider this...
Sometimes, when we feel anxious, afraid, angry or jealous of someone, we usually try to pretend that we're not afraid, and if we do, we try to postpone any possible encounter with the source of our disturbance. One can confront and resolve the mutual or one sided issue.. instead we choose to avoid it to the point that one day we explode on a sibling for something trivial like not burning the cd u asked them to.
What i feel is, that there are 2 ways to approach an emotional crisis. One is to resolve it, which of course is painful and demanding [emotionally] and the other one is to choose to ignore it as long as u can.
I think what Mr Bataille means is that man is genuinely inclined to be in denial of his true feelings to the point that he cannot have any assistance from natural resources and reaches a psychological dead end. Maybe because one does not want to retreat in any way, one doesn’t want the other to know that they are powerful enough to influence any negative emotion in them. But one only retreats [today] in order to leap better [tomorrow].
u know what they say... lose a battle to win a war.
isbah your point is very well made and i cannot add nor subtract from it. to reiterate man does indeed postpone confronting issues (out of fear, heedlessness, forgetfulness, etc.).
i am asking the question: in the aftermath of facing one's fears, is man still unwilling to 'give in'? i personally think many of us are quite willing at this stage to submit. while for some of us coming to terms with our fears may result in a mental struggle.
i think the reason why fear has a 'bad' reputation is because many people seem to associate it only with an 'irrational' mental state. this assumption suggests that our fear would vaporize if we were only to reflect upon the situation. i disagree with this assumption. i think it is implicit in the quotation but i have been wrong before :)
Fear, in terms of conservatives is only considered worthwhile if it is the fear of god. But i think that it is only human to be afraid of a car running over you or falling from a tree and breaking your bones. Emotional fears, like fear of rejection, fear of intimacy, and fear of humiliation [to name a few...]... even they need to be dealt with from time to time.
Defending humanity, im forced to highlight the fact that we were not the ones who rooted the demons of 7 deadly sins in our souls. It was given to us by God. But we certainly have to be the ones who learn to control them.
There are a fortunate few who have learned through better judgment, but for most its usually the road not taken. Looking around, u will observe many people who are still trying, still unwilling to accept their mistakes, of unacknowledging their emotions and spend their lives in depression and self destructive addictions. I believe that even your tragedies and hardships can open your hearts and minds to accepting the world the way it is and building on it a better future; while sometimes, even all the triumphs and attention can turn u into a stubborn-in human and demanding person, who wants to change the world to suit their own needs.
P.s: I double checked this one, i hope there will be no reruns for this comment :)