Fear
by Jay Paul From my youth, I recall a picture of a snow monkey from, I think, Life magazine. It was barely holding on to the edge of an icy cliff above a creek. The picture showed its front paws scraping into the ice and, more importantly, its terrified face. The eyes were wide and the mouth was tensely open—so human. Even as a boy, I recognized that its fear was similar to mine. This shows that human fear is partly biological. Some profound, probably genetic reflex alerts us to when we are in danger and increases our heartbeat and helps us to look quickly for a way out. This is the familiar fight or flee response. With humans, this fear certainly kicks in when our physical body is endangered. Another type of fear may be a little more particular to humans. I am thinking of losing stature among fellows. I wouldn't be surprised if other social animals have similar fears, but there seems something particularly human about fearing the loss of respect from other people. Then aga...