Happy Halloween, readers! The human psyche is full of fear.
A lot of fear comes from our vivid imaginations-horror is full of hypothetical
situations based on pure fantasy, but on premises that date to real situations
and concepts. Murder, disaster, accident, disease-people die from horrific
causes. Most monsters are humanoid-people are the leading cause of human
deaths. Many of our fears come from animals. Bats are alien-looking, rats carry
disease, and arthropods are alien-looking and often dangerous.
Then there’s the fears dating from actual experiences.
History is replete with examples of people by accident or malice coming into
conflict with animals. People have been
killed by our own domesticated animals: dogs can be taught to be brutal
attackers, and angry cattle, horses, and pigs are more than a match for an
unarmed human.
Then there’s people being killed by wild animals; every day
an unlucky person runs into a dangerous animal, are perceived as predator or
prey, and dispatched by deadly natural weapons honed by generations of natural
selection. Without technology, a human
being is pathetic. We’re bigger than most animals, but the largest predators
dwarf us. Our resistance against venom and chemical weapons is just our size
alone. Our natural weapons are pathetic: we can barely outrun an elephant on a
good day, our strength is feeble, our teeth are small, and our fingers and toes
are tipped with sensitive pads instead of hooves or claws. We have no armor or
horns or quills, we can’t fly, and are only efficient swimmers with a great
deal of effort.
Now imagine humans without our technology. No guns, not even a spear. We were prey. An enemy could come at any direction, and
kill us without a fight. At night, we were blind without fire, at the mercy of
nocturnal predators. You could wake up at any morning and you could find a
member of your family vanished. In the day, you’d be looking at the grass
nervously. Every time you tried to eat or drink you would have to keep your
eyes moving and eating as quickly as possible. If you scavenged from a kill,
you could easily find yourself the neighboring carcass. These are the animals we feared. Welcome to
my nightmare, my friends; I think you’re going to like it.
