Fear Always Works

            “Fear always works.” I watched Zootopia for the first time today and was impressed by how filled it was with social commentary, but that particular line in the movie (said by the villain) stood out to me. It’s true; fear always works. But, what if it didn’t?

            One of the reasons fear always works so well is because it’s instilled in us from childhood. Why? Because it always works and, quite frankly, is the easiest way to control someone. Why don’t we touch the things that will hurt us? Because we will be punished with something that we fear. Why don’t we eat the things that will make us sick or damage us in the future? Because we will be punished with something we fear. Why do we obey the rules set forth by parents to keep us safe or to keep them from worrying about us? Because we don’t want to be punished with something we fear.

            It continues on into the school system (we do schoolwork because we fear the consequences of failure), then into the work force (we do whatever we’re told, even sometimes when we know we shouldn’t, for fear of getting fired) and even our entire social structure (we obey the laws out of fear of fines and jail). Everything is predicated on fear. So, is it such a surprise that fear is used so much to control people?

            Okay, so the question then becomes, why do we always use fear? Quite simply, because it’s so easy. Look at sheep herding. With the right amount of fear in the right place, the sheep will go wherever the shepherd wants. It’s the same with people – it preys upon our survival instincts, our natural desire to stay safe. And it takes so little effort.

            Children are taught that they are to follow the rules or they’ll be punished. This simple bullying is enough to keep them mostly in line. They will follow rules that make no sense to them, just because they fear the consequences. Parents see nothing wrong with this – and why should they? They were raised the same way, and it held true for everything in the rest of their lives.

            Now, of course, they could always try explaining the rules to their children. That way they would hopefully understand why the rules are there and why they should be followed. They could be taught to keep themselves to be safe, and to respect and understand the feelings of others. But that takes a lot of time and most people don’t believe children are capable of understanding – or remembering. But a punishment, that is easy to remember.

            Still, I can’t help wondering what the world would be like if we were all raised to be mindful and empathetic rather than fearful. Would the world be a better, more compassionate place? Or would fear tactics, on the occasions that people decided to use them, become even more powerful because we aren’t so used to dealing with it?

            Either way, it seems like fear will always continue to work. I guess what we need to do is raise people to overcome fears – that way, someday, fear will no longer work.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Rules of Time Travel

            In fiction, there are three main concepts for time travel. Each of them have their own rules that must be followed in order to maintain consistency.

            One of these methods is the constant timeline. This is the theory that events throughout time cannot be changed at all. Characters can travel backwards or forwards in time, but anything they change was already accounted for and had been changed for them. A perfect representation of this is in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where the characters travel back in time in order to save some lives, only to discover that they had done so all along – one of them had even caught sight of themselves before they knew they were traveling back.

            Next is the theory that time is fluid. In this theory, a time traveler can go through time, changing whatever they want – and, in turn changing the future, sometimes with disastrous results. This is sometimes tempered by a rule that history will work itself out, such as in the Dr Who series where the Doctor and his companions are constantly saving people and changing things without altering the course of history.

            Thirdly, we have the dimensional theory. In this case, as in the fluid one, time travelers can change the course of events, but each change branches off a new dimension of reality. The changes are there for the people moving through time, but the other dimension (where the time travelers came from) usually remains unchanged. I some cases, if a big enough change is made, this method allows some branch dimensions to be erased, or at least cut off from the other dimensions. An example of this can be seen in the Back to the Future movies, were the main character nearly causes himself to have never existed – and later finds himself in an alternate timeline that is nearly apocalyptic.

            Now, it really doesn’t matter which theory of time travel is used for any particular work of fiction. It needs to be chosen to fit both the story and the world well. The important part is that once a rule set is chosen, it gets stuck to. Every story – or series – needs to follow the same rules, without jumping from one rule set to the other. As soon as the established rules are broken, the internal consistency is broken and the believability of the story falls to pieces.

            So, if you use time travel, choose and choose well. Then stick to it, no matter what.

            This semi-ranting blog has been inspired by Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – an good story, except for the part where the internal mechanics do not match those established earlier in the series.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.