Nicole Matthews

Mr. Lundstrom
ELA10H period 6
14 January 2016
The Power of Fear Versus the Logical Mind
Fear causes individuals of the human race to do many things they wouldnt do
otherwise. There are several incidents of people being trampled to death in human stampedes
caused by mass panic, dictators using unreasonable fear to get the people of one nation to wipe
out the people of another nation for their own twisted reasons, and the sacrificing the innocents
in a civilization for a vengeful and angry god to try to bring about peace. Why do people do such
things when they are afraid? People should have learned differently, right? While people should
know better, they dont. Fear causes humans to think and act irrationally because the power of
fear trumps the logical mind. Instinct takes over the body to help preserve oneself. When
someone thinks another is out to harm them, they may believe its kill or be killed. If youre
running away from something, you dont care about anyone else. Your sense of self
preservation will force you to keep moving even if you see someone who has fallen and is being
ran over. When a person is afraid, they will do almost anything. Fear is a powerful emotion that
takes over the mind and puts one thought in the head: self preservation.
This is a dog eat dog world. Fear has made absolutely sure of that. In the Hunger
Games by Suzanne Collins, two tributes chosen from each district are all pitted against each
other in a large arena they can't escape from until only one of them is left standing. Each tribute
has the exact same dilemma: if they dont kill the other tributes, the other tributes will kill them.
Not all of the tributes are particularly murderous, but none of them want to die. No, when the
time comes, Im sure Ill kill just like everybody else. (Collins 71) In the heat of the moment, with
adrenaline running through his veins, Peeta believes he will kill people in order to survive for a
while. He wants to die on his own terms, however. There is another story called Two Were Left

by Hugh B. Cave. Noni and his dog, Nimuk, were stranded on an iceberg and completely
isolated. They had been there for three days and both were getting quite ravenous. One of us
will soon be devouring the other, Noni thought. So (Cave 4) Noni did not wish to be killed
and eaten by his dog, so he fashioned a knife in order to kill and eat Nimuk before Nimuk could
get him. Fear made Noni think he had to eat or be eaten.
Terrorist bombs have often caused panicked stampedes. Lots of people die from the
explosion of the bomb itself, but others are trampled beneath the feet of scared runaways as
they try to get away. We are often told to remain calm in an emergency; we always practice a
calm and orderly drill in preparation for a bad situation, but when the emergency is real and
danger is imminent, rational thought flees. When humans are faced with a life threatening
situation, adrenaline kicks in and all they can think about is protecting themselves. In his
magazine article, Peter Debruge reports on a false alarm that happened just days after an
actual terrorist attack in Paris and caused great panic. As we warily exited the devastated
restaurant, someone claimed that two shooters had been spotted a few blocks away, near Les
Halles not true, but enough to turn a feeling of solidarity into self-preservation. At Place de la
Republique, a similar flash-panic sent thousands of Parisians running from the meeting square.
At first, they were told there had been an attack in Rue des Rosiers, in the Jewish quarter,
followed by news of danger in Rue des Archives misinformation all, yet compelling enough to
create a fresh threat as people practically stampeded for cover. (Debruge 11) Self preservation
comes about through fear and causes trouble for others. If we learned to help each other in all
situations, the world would be much better off than it is now.
Many will disagree with the notion that fear causes feelings of self preservation,
especially parents. If you love someone more than yourself, you'll do anything for them to
protect them. Those who believe that are right, however, that is also a form of fear. It is indeed
possible to lay down your own life for someone else because you are more afraid of losing them
than losing yourself. People will break the law because of fear for others. Over the years, many

people have been lead to steal money to pay for a loved ones medical treatments do make
others bad choices for similar causes. These people were more afraid of losing what they loved
rather than the consequence they themselves would face for breaking the law of the land. In
August 2015, Simon McCormack reports in his news article, A Michigan father accused of
robbing a bank told police he did it to pay for his daughter's cancer treatment. (McCormack 1)
This dad had a small girl with eye cancer and just wanted to see her get the treatment she
needed and deserved. Many, like this father, will stop at nothing, even death, to protect
something they fear losing. A quote that comes to mind is, When you protect someone you
want to keep safe, do you always way your life against theirs? (Kusanagi) People will act
irrationally from fear even when protecting someone else instead of themselves. They might not
stop to think that their sacrifice will hurt the one they most want to protect.
Another part of acting irrationally from fear is being afraid when there is no danger. This
kind of irrationality can establish itself in many ways and mainly comes about from being
conditioned to fear certain actions or sounds. Put a rat in a cage, play a tone, and
simultaneously deliver a shock to the animal. After a few rounds of tone and shock, the rat starts
to fear the tone even if it's not accompanied by the shock. (Johnson 9) In the rat experiment,
the tone itself was not scary, but because it was associated with the shock, the rat comes to
believe that hearing that tone means being shocked, which is something to fear. This can be
very similar to what war veterans experience with post traumatic stress disorder. Even though
they are back home where it is safe, they cannot help but tense up and be irrationally afraid
when they hear shouts, loud pops, or other sounds they may associate with battle. A certain
young woman lost her ability to retain any new memories so her doctor tried something similar
to the rat experiment mentioned earlier. He introduced himself to the woman as usual, but
when he reached to shake her hand for the first time, he concealed a pin in his palm. It wasn't
friendly, but Claparde was onto something. When he arrived the next day, his patient greeted
him with the usual blank welcomeno memory of yesterday's pinprick, no memory of yesterday

at alluntil Claparde extended his hand. Without being able to explain why, the woman
refused to shake. (Johnson 8) Despite being unable to retain any new memory, the woman had
a sense of danger when the doctor held out his hand. It was irrational to be afraid, but her brain
associated his hand with pain. Fear is so strong, that it transcended the woman's inability to
remember things.
Fear can sometimes manifest itself so severely in some people that they will see things
that aren't there. This is how a lot of ghost stories come about. It is scientifically proven that
when someone is scared, they are more alert than they would normally be. The adrenaline and
other stress hormones released in your body have brought you to a state of almost superhuman
alertness; you feel more awake than you've felt in your entire life. (Johnson 2) As a result,
every sound is amplified, every dark space becomes a potential hiding spot for danger, every
movement, big or small, is completely noticeable and only serves to make a person more afraid.
An air vent rustling a curtain becomes a creepy, unexplained happening caused by unknown
phenomenon among other things one may think they see. Fear causes thoughts to turn
irrational and non logical.
Fear is a powerful emotion that can take away the human ability to think logically. When
faced with fear, people can decide to kill or be killed. Like the tributes from the Hunger Games,
most would choose to survive rather than die. People often attempt to preserve themselves,
pushing others out of the way in the process. Someone always ends up hurt that way, but no
one cares because fear drives survivalists to leave others behind. In other cases, humans may
value anothers life more than their own, and so, endeavor to protect said other whatever the
cost. Those kinds of people fail to realize the hurt and guilt they leave their loved one in the
process. Irrational fear can be conditioned and ingrained into ones brain so that they will fear a
specific sight or sound. That kind of fear resembles that of post traumatic stress disorder where
any sight or sound from a traumatic memory can trigger a panic attack. Fear can cause people
to see things that aren't there because of a heightened sense of unease. Rather than letting fear

and those in control of our fears rule our lives, we should work together to overcome fear and
help protect each other the way pack and herd animals do. Meerkats have lookouts who warn of
danger and help everyone stay safe. They work together and have a good, working system. If
humans could copy that system, we would all have very minimal casualties. Don't let fear rule
the lives of our people. Look out for each other and we will make it out okay.