Image source: Image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay).

Threat, danger, and harm. These are the watch-words for fear. Our world is currently living amidst a brutal push and pull. Myriad countries are playing a role—Russia, the United States, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Britain and more. Ultimately, what lies at the heart of their melee? It is nothing other than our dear old friend ego and its compatriot, fear. They are two sides of the same coin, central in this charade.

Fear For Survival

Fear is defined as “a very unpleasant or disturbing feeling caused by the presence or imminence of danger.” After emerging from our watery birthplace and setting foot on land, the strive to survive has been a constant companion. With that, has come fear.

We can cast our minds back thousands of years, when our lives were often in danger. At the time, many threats existed beyond the circles of safety we’d desperately create around our fires. Night and day, we’d fear for our survival. It’s a very old game.

Huddled around the safety of the fire. Source: Photo by Joris Voeten on Unsplash.

Although, the game of survival is played according to very different rules nowadays. We need only look at what’s currently occurring now on our planet. Many, if not all, the power games of the various countries and companies revolve around resources we require for our survival—oil, gas, and food.

Naturally, they fear that without the control of the resources, they cannot survive. However, the natural fear is compounded by the fear they’ll lose control of the oil, gas, food and so on. Thus, they fight for power and control. Otherwise, they fear other companies and countries will walk away with billions of dollars and control over more resources.

Ego Enters the Fray

Things get a lot more complicated when our egos enter the fray. Along with fear, our egos play an equally central role. The Latin “ego” means “I” in English. So, if something is “egoic,” it relates to the “ego” or “I.” Egotism is practised by virtually everyone. The idea is a focus on the “I” or the “me.” Egocentrism refers to perceiving the world solely from one’s own personal perspective. In fact, in virtually all the plights of the world, it’s possible to witness the presence of the ego or the “I.”

We derive a sense of who we are by virtue of our ego and with what we identify. We do so intensely, with conditions such as our physical appearance, status, culture, experience, assets, age and of course, money and power. They are what we have become.

Our false selves we hide behind ultimately only fooling

ourselves. Source: Photo by Iulia Mihailov on Unsplash.

For many now in control, their egos are strongly guided by money, power and therefore, control. According to our egoic conditioning, these qualities become how many have defined themselves, what some refer to as the false self. It is not truthfully who they are, although it’s who they’ve become.

Out of Control

Once this groundwork is laid, the way is clear for fear to further seize control. Sometimes it’s an intense fear that drives people to want control over a resource another possesses. “I” demand to have control over that resource, they vehemently claim, given the overwhelming fear it will otherwise slip away. Not necessarily slip away to be lost forever, but into another’s control.

“I” want control of this resource and “I” possess the power to make it so. “I” seek to command this country to do my bidding. Again, “I” have the power to ensure it occurs. We have myriad “I’s” or “egos” strutting about laying claim to this or that resource.

And so, the throng of egos madly thrash about as they are bowed by their indomitable fears. In so doing, they make a mess, governed by their egos, fuelled by their fears. Initially driven by the desire to survive, they are soon subsumed by their egos that are defined by their control of money and power.

Like a passel of unruly kindergartners, each then wrestles for total control. They get nowhere, beyond meeting goals of control they’ve convinced themselves are essential for their, and only their survival. All the while, pandering to their false selves, as per their ego, defined by money, power and control.

We Push Ever More Forcefully

Many push levers convincing themselves they wield total control of the world. In their estimation, it is a control exceeding even that of Mother Nature. Of course, their efforts pale in comparison to the strength and beautiful savageness casually wielded by Mother Nature. After all, before we existed, our planet was at times a cataclysmic maelstrom of explosive devastation far beyond anything humans could hope to muster.

Images of what was once a city of loving, laughing people. Photo Source: Mahmoud Sulaiman on Unsplash.

Either way, they’ll certainly make a mess of at least a part of the world. And they’ve already violently disrupted millions of lives and taken countless others. These entities can cast brutal blows. There is no question.

For some reason, the movement has been one of division rather than unification. And here, it seems fear is the barrier, ensuring we do not come together. Rather, each one fights vehemently for his or her own survival and continued comfort.

Is There Another Way?

We’re left wondering if there is not another way. Most of us know the obvious response to conundrums such as these in our own lives. It’s what many of us do when faced with a threat to our collective survival—we work together. In so doing, we combine our skills and energy and are thus far more than capable of facing any challenge.

Ultimately, actions in the pursuit of global power and its icon of money are partially an effort to control the means to survive. Our egos get in the way and we become defined by money and power. Where does it end?

It will end when those in power cease bowing to their egos, serving up a false self they slavishly attempt to satisfy. Moreover, it’ll end when the overwhelming power of collegiality, kindness, empathy and goodness rises—as it always does eventually.

The essence of hope. Image Source: Michael Kleinsasser from Pixabay

The goal is to come together. Through connection, we find one another and reveal the spirit within. As Brené Brown says, “People are hard to hate close up. Move in.”

I’m not saying the stakes aren’t exceedingly high. We’re playing with fire and yes, it’s entirely likely some of us are going to burn our hands, perhaps irreversibly so. Still, I’m merely saying this is an opportunity for us to resist by simply coming together. Love can douse the flames of hatred.

Sources:

Brown, Brené 2017 Braving the Wilderness (New York: Random House)

Israel, Ira 2023 “How to Dissolve the Ego (According to Eckhart Tolle’s Teachings)” https://www.wikihow.com/Dissolve-the-Ego-(According-to-Eckhart-Tolle’s-Teachings)

Narvaez, Darcia F. 2019 “Self-Transformation 2: Ego-Dissolution” https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/moral-landscapes/201909/self-transformation-2-ego-dissolution

Vice News 2023 “Reporting from Inside the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okjQm5jOywo