Fear of the dark

Why our primal fear continues to be a prominent motivator for seemingly irrational actions

The Earth’s total history spans 4.5 billion years and Homo sapiens have been around for a little more than 300,000 years. Quoting Lewis Dartnell from his book, Origins: How the Earth made us, “"We are all apes. The human branch of the evolutionary tree, called the hominins, is part of the wider animal group of the primates. Our closest living relatives are the chimpanzees. Genetics suggest that our divergence from the chimps was a long and drawn-out process, beginning as early as 13 million years ago, with interbreeding continuing until perhaps 7 million years ago.” We are still apes in many ways more than one.

Fear of the dark:

A graphic image appeared on social media a few weeks ago trending on many platforms. A panther burying its canines into the skull of a hominid, puncturing its eyes. The hominid was alive when it was preyed upon and in immense pain. Chimpanzees and by extension early hominids were prey for a large number of carnivores ranging from leopards, sabre-tooth tigers, cave lions, hyenas, crocodiles, dire wolves and even some large birds of prey.

We left the forest when the East African Rift swelled up from the magma plume underneath, blocking rainfall over much of East Africa. At the same time, the highlands from the Rift also blocked moist air from the Central African rainforests. This transformed the landscape from lush forest into a dry savannah. The arboreal chimpanzees had to descend from the trees into the grasslands to scrounge for food, while hopefully avoiding becoming food for someone else lurking in the grass. It’s not that the trees were safer, we have evolved to see more shades of green than any other colour. This is a throwback to that ancient self-preservation instinct, trying to spot movement among the leaves and grass.

Over time, humans stopped featuring in the diet of predatory animals thanks to how we smelled (constant presence of fire), how we looked (hairless apes), how we walked (we are one of the few species that walks upright) and how we learned to hunt and fight off predators in large groups. The predators stopped hunting us but their fear never really left us. To our reptilian brain, we’ve not left the jungle yet.

Fear of the unknown:

We stopped being prey about 2.5 million years ago and moved from small tribes and groups into settlements that grew into villages, towns and cities. Of course, these settlements are still recent in the large realm of time. We could for now fend off against predatory animals but had to contend with a few more difficulties. The fear of the outsider.

Until the advent of electricity (which would be a long time coming), the darkness was a formidable foe. Once the sun had set, an inky blackness consumed everything around us. Fires small or large could provide warmth and safety but only so much. There was a void beyond that could not be filled. That emptiness could conceal anything, anyone. With settlements and towns cropping up, the pastoral nomad who didn’t belong to the tribe was a potential suspect. This battle between nomads and settled people would play out continually with the former being accused of vagrancy The last of the great civilisational clashes would play out in the 19th century with American settlers dispossessing, displacing and destroying the Native American way of life, which was primarily nomadic following the vast herds of buffalo that roamed the American Prairie.

Fear of the uncertain:

For the longest time, farmers had to deal with crippling anxiety of whether their crops will yield a good harvest, whether the weather gods would be merciful with rain and shine, pray for a locust-free season among other things. This uncertainty found a response in a coping mechanism, transferring responsibility for all things beyond control to an external agency, God. In addition to promising hope and protection, the idea of God also united tribe members and helped maintain the collective, reining in negative sentiments and feelings that could possibly break the community. The idea of God gradually developed into formal religions, some developing elaborate rituals for every possible life event ranging from birth, naming, childhood, marriage and death. The Abrahamic faiths evolved to incorporate imperial ambitions with specific mentions of rights, grants and privileges that its adherents could claim as theirs exclusively.

Primal fear motivating irrational actions:

While every religion preaches kindness and tolerance, putting the community above the individual and charity over selfishness, its adherents cannot claim to be following scriptures to the letter. In fact, much blood has been spilt over religion and religious difference, from tribal conflicts to full-scale genocidal campaigns.

This isn’t to say that humans are inherently evil and cannot tolerate anything that doesn’t conform to their idea of normalcy. I argue that this is our primal prey instinct that’s acting up. Fear of the dark. We fear what we cannot understand and when fear strikes, responses come from the primal parts of the brain. Science today breaks it down quite lucidly as to what happens when fear strikes but we still cannot program our minds to control our fear. Our ancient flight or fight responses morph into morbid forms of tyranny beginning with “othering” those who we consider as outsiders.

With social media, the process of polarisation has already matured and what was expected to unite us has today brought out the worst traits among us. An over reliance on feelings as opposed to facts and hurt sentiments ranking higher than reason are all expressions of our reptilian brain, who still believes that there’s someone lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce upon us.

Overcoming fear:

Our efficiency prone minds prioritise intuitive responses over careful thought through ones when in a state of panic. One cannot reason when frightened and hence the first step in overcoming fearful thinking is to manage our fear. Fear has a wide range of triggering factors from spiders and rats to people who do not share cultural or religious beliefs. Arachnophobia isn’t however the same as homophobia. Here are a few things you could do to control your fear of the other and the uncertain:

1. Begin in doubt about the other’s ill intent: Social media and echo chambers may have programmed you to fear those who do not dress like you, eat like you or pray to your God. Try to understand their perspective by studying about their culture and their historic background. If you live in the United States and believe that Haitian immigrants are eating cats and dogs, it would do you good to understand their current situation of political turmoil and instability, events that were set in motion by colonial European powers and aided by the United States. It’s because their homeland is no longer safe or tenable that these migrants made an extensive (often hazardous) journey into the United States seeking a better life, one that’s marginally better than what they have now. Yes, they contribute toward building the economy of their host country.

2. There is beauty in diversity: The presence of people who do not conform to your idea of gender or any other seemingly “important” factor does not threaten your or society’s existence. There are no rules in society that are immutable or constant. There’s just this life as we know it and no more. It doesn’t hurt to accommodate others and their idiosyncrasies, they are accommodating you and yours as well.

3. Learn to rely on facts and not fiction: Facts do not care for your sentiments nor anyone else’s and there is a cold sense of satisfaction in this. We have come too far from the hunter-gatherer tribe days and in order to progress, evidence needs to be fact-based and not otherwise. This is especially tricky given how social media algorithms prioritise spontaneous engagement and outrage but precious little can be earned with all that rage and resentment.

4. There may not be a happy ending: The Big Bang theory has proven beyond doubt about the origins of the Universe and its constant expansion. While there may be evidence hinting at a greater power causing this, we are yet to discover it. The Universe as we know it does not follow any moral logic. It is cold, infinite and indifferent for the most part. However, this does not mean that we cannot create a space where we can define our morals and rules, rules that prioritise kindness and empathy over all else.

Here’s a snatch of Iron Maiden for you if you’ve come this far. From the same song is this verse I would like you to remember.

“When I'm walking a dark road
I am a man who walks alone”