The Joo

I was in a taxi just outside of Chennai, Southern India, when my driver suddenly pointed to a large compound of ruins, broken walls, unfinished statues and rubbles. He said - "Joo will be there"......

Confused - I looked at the site and after a few seconds I said "um...Jew?!" I began to think this driver is pulling some sort of a nasty joke.

"Yes, Joo - monkeys, tigers and all that!".....

Another seconds of pause and I said "aaah! Zoo! ok, great!"

Nothing to Fear

Human is probably the only animal species in the world that accumulates more and more fear as they grow older. A six years old boy will be brave enough to say whatever he thinks without fear that someone will take his opinion personally - for example to tell his aunt that he does not like her cooking. Once he grow to be a college student, he may not have that bravery anymore - and settled with a diplomatic answer like "it's nice, aunt....but I am already very full". This university student may still fearlessly criticize the status quo without much regards to the threats of being fired or being alienated by the establishment. Once he grow to be a 30 years old man with a family, he may behave in a much more reserved way.

Then the story continues to all walks of lives. A subordinate may fear to correct his boss - for fear of a career damage. A boss of a company may decide to hide the truth about the financial problem ahead of them, because he fears the impact to the stock value and therefore his bonus and job. Many doctors fears loss of income if they give the true answers to some patients. The politicians on the left fears the rise of the right and vice versa, so they blame every single problem on the other side.

The fears I described above is not the same as the primal fear - the type of fear that we share with other animals. Primal fear protects us from things that endanger our own lives - like when deers run away at the sight of an approaching cheetah. That is a survival mechanism that is shared by every animal, including us. But in our human species, we have developed a second type of fear, which I can only define as delusional fear.

It is delusional because it arise without anything that threatens one's survival. Because of this fear, we complicate our lives by telling lies, building boundaries and creating bureaucracies. I think dillusional fear is not only counter-productive, it is also very destructive. Some people may do harm to others just because of delusional fears. Some companies may abandon their ethical standards just because of these fears. Some politicians may decide to say what they don't mean for the same reason.

At the end of all this, the only thing that will happen is change: a change to our lifestyle, a change to a relationship, a change to our habit, a change to our jobs, a change of the way we see things. This change happens everyday - in small gradual quantum, or in a one-time big bang. Some people like to believe that they are untouchable - because of their position, their money and their network. The stronger one believes in this sense of control, the bigger his/her delusional fear would be. But those are all illusions. We are all just humans, and when the change needs to happen, it will happen anyway.

Therefore I believe that the best way to live is to be the change, and to know that there is nothing to fear.