Had to start with a Paul McCartney quote. How else to start anything on the right foot?
So my mom, in a bout of her usual Internet paranoia, decided to go to this site and look up registered sex offenders in our neighborhood. Pretty scary, to say the least. Looking at the pictures of the offenders, it makes you shudder; you can see in their eyes and face that something just isn't right. Something has snapped inside and these people have become consumed with horrific, evil desires to do things that are far below humanity.
I've read statistics, I've seen bits of the MSNBC "To Catch a Predator", I've spoken with our resident expert on crime, Dr. Durkin....but I can't make up my mind as to the level of fear I should hold. Clearly there are lots of twisted people willing to do horrible things out there. That can't be denied. (The question of "Why does God allow this stuff to exist in this world?" is one for another day...)
But how much can you worry, or rather, how much can you turn a blind eye? To one extreme, you can totally shut your eyes. You can pretend this kind of evil doesn't exist, turn up the happy music, and live in denial. To the other extreme, you can see yourself as a warrior, always having to be on guard, always fighting to protect yourself from the worst kind of evil, being overly cautious and paranoid, and never going outside alone for fear of what might happen.
Shit happens in this world, no matter how prepared or "aware" you are of it. Tragic accidents, violent crime...these things happen to people who fear it and to people who don't expect it. May God grant that none of us ever are faced with the horrible kind of evil these offenders represent.
You can't prevent awful things from happening, but you might also be able to take steps to avoid them. But what steps are too far? Let's return to our two extremes: You could never get in a car for fear of crashing, never talk to new people for fear they might be a psycho killer (fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa), never enjoy a nice solitary walk outside for fear of being attacked...or you could blindly assume everyone you see is safe and that "nothing will ever happen to me". Two extremes. Where is the balance?
The problem with a "moderate" stance, as with anything in the middle, is that there's no clearly defined answer. I guess one just has to try their damndest to be cautious without being paranoid, be outgoing without being unaware of potential danger. I also think we have an instinct, a way of picking up "vibes" from people. Brian Wilson sang about "good vibrations", and we can also pick up bad ones; that uneasy feeling you get seeing a picture of a rapist tells you something on a primal level, that on some subconscious level something is not right. This instinct can be a useful thing. Oh yeah, and you should probably ask God for guidance too, of course. He knows. Everything.
Thoughts?
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3 comments:
I think the best policy is to be cognizant of the circumstances without letting them completely overwhelm you. At the risk of sounding overly idealistic, maybe the best way to counteract evil in the world is to go out and do good things in the world--help others out and give back. I like to think I have intutition about people too, but I can still think of a lot of people about whom I had wrong first impressions. I have to agree with you on the God part, though--He's the only one we can always depend on.
This comment might be more like a whole other entry here, but here goes...
The moderate side also depends on confidence. You have to walk out into the world and know that whatever happens, be it a psycho killer (interesting vid, by the by) or any other danger to you, you know how to react. If someone comes up to congratulate you on a job well done, you know to thank them, tell them you appreciate the comment, and be humble about it. Rapist comes up to you, and you know that once you're in their grasp, you need to fight for your life using whatever means you have because to give up is to die. Sure, fighting might mean dying, but at least you didn't die quietly. And herein, we ask ourselves where that confidence comes from: might it be God, or your abilities, or even memories? I can't answer that for anyone.
But yes, fear is a good thing to have...I'm not saying one should go about their life fearless. To do that is just as idiotic as being the paranoid git, or the one who denies that evil exists. In between fear, confidence and denial must exist a healthy paranoia, what could be known as common sense, one that says "Keep the SSN off the drivers license," or "Don't walk alone down a dark, deserted alley in the bad part of town." Might you look into the book "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin DeBecker. Quite an interesting read.
anonymous, who are you? that was brilliant.
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