There's a saying that goes, "We are all essentially alone," or something to that effect. Well.....we are, aren't we?
It's without question one of humanity's greatest fears, surely on par with that of the unknown (which of course also encompasses death and change.) When presented with fear, people use all sorts of methods to combat it, some more effective than others. If some methods are found to work better than others they become enmeshed in our psyches. It's the classic trial and error...one system of beliefs deposing another, and so on, and so on. Some of our most potent and enduring societal structures and belief systems have sprung from these repeated attempts. And as one might expect, the stronger the fear, the more entrenched the solution.
Society does have a collective memory -- a foundation on which each successive step is placed. Without this ability to adapt and flourish in spite of what we don't understand or even care to try to, we would have doomed ourselves long ago. But with it, are we doomed in a different fashion? Have we created so many ways to allay our fears or displace them completely that we've lost the ability to confront or accept them?
Alone, you say? We can't possibly be alone. Death can't be the end! It's not right, it's not fair. Find your perfect someone for you to be the half to that whole. Or wait! You're not alone....believe in God! Or Allah, or if you're not into the male figure, worship The Goddess. Or just pick something up there. Anything will do.
People have done it since the beginning of recorded history. But just because people have done it doesn't mean that what they've created is real or true, objectively speaking. The fact that the solutions that humanity's managed to create so far have become the medicines of choice in no way gives them any special meaning just because they've been so.
But before you think me a religious critic, some people also like to spin this the opposite direction, looking for truth or salvation or some sort of ultimate explanation in science. Science makes as its goal the same as religion, though it approaches it from the opposite end of the spectrum; to organize chaos and make the universe into an understandable and ordered place. But really, aren't these just two facets of the same stone? Ask the mind and it answers in one fashion -- via reason -- and ask the heart and it answers in another -- faith. Each one wants to be the ultimate authority and to disprove or disregard, if not downright negate, the other. It's a great game plan since the need for understanding happens in most people. To alleviate the uncertainty, most just pick a side and go with it. Both forget, however, that between the heart and the mind there is another, vitally important middle -- the place where the fears of the unknown and of being alone lurk. Born of neither mind nor heart and always just beyond either's grasp.
I find it amusing, and very telling, that both sides strive for the same end; to pull the reins in on the power of fear. To tame it. Break it, even, so that it becomes definable and can then be contained or dethroned or even defeated and eliminated.
Call God your God.....or call Science your God. Either way, what you are truly seeking is control of the middle place where those fears lurk. And you know what....that's okay! Fear is healthy and fear is a constant. Only by walking toward it can you make it settle down.
But I was speaking of the fear of being alone. I suffer from it -- friends of mine do too. The urge to find anything resembling a life raft -- a person to define yourself around, or a belief, or a cause -- is stronger than the will that most can manage to muster up to try to fight it. They say that believing in nothing is easy. I say that turning away from that instinct to gather just for the sake of gathering is far from easy. I believe they don't know of what they speak.
((Song: "Yer Blues" by the Beatles. Lyrics here:
http://www.beatleslyricsarchive.com/viewSong.php?songID=139 ))
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