Zero Squared
The unknown is invisible. It cannot be seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched. It is unknown. Let’s say it is represented by zero squared.
Left to itself, zero squared is not intimidating. It becomes quite novel to say, “Oh yes, that is zero squared…The Unknown”.
However, zero squared has a really nasty reputation. Those who’ve jumped that cliff often come back different. Changed. With much to be said about “jumping into the unknown”. And very little of it is good information.
Or perhaps those who come back with good reports are seen as confident and holding some sort of wisdom that the paranoid can never know.
Unfortunately, vast intellectual hives can be built around zero squared. For instance, the fear of death can lead to the fear of driving, the fear of riding a bike, the fear of flying, the fear of love, the fear of intimacy, the fear of crossing the street, the fear of germs, etc. and so on.
Human beings learn to fear the unknown. They are honed to fear it. Is not the sure footed given high status? Oh, yes! He’s a good egg and always looks where he’s headed. Foresight.
Hindsight is called 20-20. That is the sort of education where one looks back and realizes how many liars and con artists he’s known.
But to have the superior insight of foresight? That many times requires hindsight and psychologists date books are filled with the names of post trauma victims. Human beings, in their youth learn that stepping off into the unknown can lead to dire circumstances. Circumstances which can cling to a life forever.
The current state of foreign affairs, what, with terrorism and kidnappings can be intimidating even for the more jaded.
Think of it in these terms. How many psychologists or psychiatrists do you know would give up a couple of years of their practice in the United States and go to places such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia? Not many, I’d bet. It conjures something far more vaguely dangerous than zero squared.
Because what we do know is that between Jihad and Sharia Law, the equation builds to unfathomable proportions and not knowing would put psychologists and psychiatrists in a rather insecure position. Thereby devaluating their role as analysts, reducing them to confessional, secular priests, whom, if they are wise, take no sides on any issues and have pharmaceuticals at hand. If not loaded pistols.
Humans fear the unknown because experience tells them that being unprepared has bad consequences and the less confident a person is, the less apt they are to get beyond their fear.
The only way to build confidence is by experience.
