Fear... Man's Companion
Since the war in Gaza and the current Gulf War, my pen has rarely left the battlefields and combat zones. In every attempt to break this siege, I find myself compelled to return to war, its affairs, and its trajectory. My colleague, the creative poet Nashmi Mahna (Waddah), shares this experience; he once said in one of his poems, “Why is it always war?” I have long envied the esteemed writer Ahmed Al-Sarraf, who managed to break this siege with skill, allowing him to create essays far removed from war and its arenas.
Fear is among the most difficult and severe consequences of war. Despite the horrors of bombing, artillery, displacement, killing, and destruction, these remain relatively temporary compared to the fear that takes root in the consciousness and persists, sometimes permanently. The children, elders, and women of Gaza, who endured the atrocities of the arrogance of the Zionist entity and lost their loved ones, security, land, and safety, undoubtedly suffer from a pervasive fear that will remain with them even when the sounds of artillery fall silent. The same applies to the children of the Gulf states, who lived under the threat of Iranian drones and missiles and the wailing of sirens. They too will be exposed to fears that may not manifest directly but are undoubtedly entrenched in their consciousness, as many specialists and doctors in the field of mental health have pointed out and warned about.
It is said that fear is humanity’s oldest companion. Long before humans knew or built their civilizations, they knew fear: fear of natural phenomena, fear of beasts, fear of death, and fear of the unknown. In times of war, fear of the unknown multiplies, especially when shells, missiles, and drones impose themselves as a tangible reality rather than a mere possibility. Fear then invades consciousness, homes, schools, markets, and everything else. The future becomes featureless, relegated to the realm of the unknown. Consciousness begins to generate all possibilities and pose all questions, making imagination more brutal than reality.
Philosophers have often addressed the dilemma of fear in their discourses. Socrates, for instance, discussed the reason humans fear death: because they do not know what lies beyond. Seneca approached fear from a different angle, emphasizing that humans often suffer from anticipating disasters before they occur. One of his most famous ideas is that humans suffer more in their imagination than in reality. In Buddhism, the best way to deal with fear is to confront it, not to flee from it. Humans should not deny fear, but they must not allow it to dominate their future instead of them.
There is no doubt that wars in the Middle East, in general, will cast their shadows on the minds of both children and adults. No one yet knows how this will unfold or what its dimensions will be. We are still living the event in the present, today. Thanks to communication technology, which transmits images and scenes of war, everyone is now in a war zone. It is inherent in the function of the human brain that the perception of fear can be triggered merely by viewing images or video clips. The real danger of fear arises when it transforms from an actual fear caused by direct events—such as bombing, the sounds of missiles or drones, or explosions—into a permanent fear, anxiety, and panic about what might happen, not just what is happening. In other words, fear linked to a tangible, immediate reality diminishes when the explosions, missiles, and drones cease. However, permanent fear gradually becomes part of consciousness, remaining dominant and potentially keeping humans in a state of vigilance and anxiety about the worst-case scenario.
Fear has been humanity’s first companion since its inception. It was the primary catalyst for the rise of human civilizations, driving humans to innovate in medicine and technology. It is an innate and sometimes necessary feeling for human protection. Wisdom dictates dealing with it on this basis, without allowing it to become your permanent companion.
Soad Fahad Al-Muajel
