Vexillology

n
Definition: the study of flags

~~~~~~~

4.

In all animals sentient, there are two types of security necessary for survival: physical security, which is founded on healthy physiology and an ensconcing environment (or the facets necessary to navigate a harmful one); and mental/emotional security, which, through a combination of chemicals, programmed emotional benefits for performing activities that aid a creature’s survival and punishments for dangerous behavior (pleasure and pain), and the emotional responses incumbent in fear, stability, affection and loyalty, aid the creature in achieving a paragon model of survival. Survival is at the core of every creature including humans, and though our conscious minds have progressed beyond this simple model, we remain inextricably bound to it.

In animals, many of these instincts and functions work as they should: animals fear encountering unknown entities, fear night-time (unless they’re nocturnal) and many creatures maintain unchanging patterns that ensure survival. I see several correlations in humans: it is a natural inclination to fear the unknown, but why? It is not as if our conscious mind has derived, since birth, that the unknown always or even often leads to danger or tragedy—in fact, in many cases what we find is either benign or enriching to our experiences. Often times cultures will bond together and become wary when infiltrated by new people with different cultures and values—is this because the new cultures and ways of thinking are, indeed, dangerous to the individual or the community? Or is it possible that some part of this inclination is naturally derived?

I am suggested here, as an example, that our fear of the unknown, and of those whose traditions and manners differ from us is a legacy of survival programming. In the days when we were far less conscious and more animalistic, it is only reasonable that we would find (being creatures that are neither the biggest nor the strongest) a natural inclination toward fear of the unknown—to callous a traveler and too incautious an explorer would surely find him or herself dead. The conscious mind has developed much since then, but that programming—that association that the subconscious makes between the unknown and danger—is what causes our fear, not the actual unknown itself.