Six Fears

1. Fear of Poverty. The Fear of Poverty grows out of man’s habit of preying upon his fellow men, economically. The animals which have instinct, but no power to THINK, prey upon one another physically. Man, with his superior sense of intuition, and his more powerful weapon of THOUGHT, does not eat his fellow man bodily; he gets more pleasure from eating him FINANCIALLY. So great an offender is man, in this respect, that nearly every state and nation has been obliged to pass laws, scores of laws, to protect the weak from the strong. Every blue-sky law is indisputable evidence of man’s nature to prey upon his weaker brother economically.
2. Fear of Old Age. This Fear grows out of two major causes. First, the thought that Old Age may bring with it POVERTY. Secondly, from false and cruel sectarian teachings which have been so well mixed with fire and brimstone that every human being learned to Fear Old Age because it meant the approach of another and, perhaps, a more horrible world than this.
3. Fear of Ill Health. This Fear is born of both physical and social heredity. From birth until death there is eternal warfare within every physical body; warfare between groups of cells, one group being known as the friendly builders of the body, and the other as the destroyers, or “disease germs.” The seed of Fear is born in the physical body, to begin with, as the result of Nature’s cruel plan of permitting the stronger forms of cell life to prey upon the weaker. Social heredity has played its part through lack of cleanliness and knowledge of sanitation. Also, this fear is cleverly manipulated by those who would try to profit from it.
4. Fear of Loss of Love of Someone. This Fear fills the asylums with the insanely jealous, for jealousy is nothing but a form of insanity. It also fills the divorce courts and causes murders and other forms of cruel punishment. It is a holdover, handed down through social heredity, from the stone age when man preyed upon his fellow man by stealing his mate by physical force. The method, but not the practice, has now changed to some extent. Instead of physical force man now steals his fellow man’s mate with pretty colorful ribbons and fast motor cars and bootleg whisky, and sparkling rocks and stately mansions. Man is improving. He now “entices” where once he “drove.”
5. Fear of Criticism. Just how and where man got this Fear is difficult to determine, but it is certain that he has it. The makers of clothing have not been slow to capitalize this Basic Fear of mankind. Every season the styles change, because the clothes makers know that few people have the courage to wear a garment that is one season out of step with what “They are all wearing.”
6. Fear of Death. For tens of thousands of years man has been asking the still unanswered questions—“WHENCE?” and “WHITHER?” The more crafty of the race have not been slow to offer the answer to this eternal question, “Where did I come from and where am I going after Death?” “Come into my tent,” says one leader, “and you may go to Heaven after Death.” Heaven was then pictured as a wonderful city whose streets were lined with gold and studded with precious stones. “Remain out of my tent and you may go straight to hell.” Hell was then pictured as a blazing furnace where the poor victim might have the misery of burning forever in brimstone. No wonder mankind FEARS DEATH!