Our Fear of “Otherness”

“To be yourself in a world that’s constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our world is one of fear and separateness. The very notions by which we define ourselves automatically quantify and categorize a certain vision of legitimacy and self-worth. This vision, when combined with the alluring dangers of commercial enterprise and sub-standard scrutiny of body image, methodically dictate these isolating feelings of fear and otherness. It shrewdly proliferates every aspect of our daily lives. This otherness constantly causes feelings of anxiety, fear, and separation between us. You can see it in the woman’s eyes as she pulls her purse closer to body walking down the street. You can hear it in the harrowing silence that haunts the emptiness between strangers on a train. You can feel it in an awkward, forced conversation between two people that may have, under different circumstances, been good friends. This otherness lingers in the air of every social situation in which we enter—polluting it with misconceived notions, and widening the void between us.

This sense of otherness is strangling us. It’s constricting the flow of love between us and our fellow beings, sending society into a state of asphyxia and shock. All of a sudden, anyone could be the bad guy; so it seems safer to entertain such inauspicious conceptions of one another. We cower at the very idea of societal trust—and for good reason. Society has turned us against one another, creating cultural binaries based on gender, race, religion, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and the like. We have let these binaries define who we are as individuals, putting us in direct opposition to anything different or other. Seeming to legitimize actions spawned out of hatred and fear, otherness is often used as an excuse to hurt, blame, exclude, intimidate, tease, and breakdown others in an attempt to build our broken selves back up. We have for too long used the discrimination of others as a magic mirror through which we behold our own reflection at twice its natural size.

The need to be accepted by our peers paradoxically brings us further away from one another; causing us to cast some people off based solely on stereotypical misconceptions. We are scrambling to put back the pieces of society as it collapses on top of us. And to what end? Greed, wealth, and assumed social hierarchical status further segregate us and create an erratic foundation upon which we view our own relationship with the world. We have effectively invented a social isolation regime that works against our human capacity to love and respect one another as individuals. Life has shown us the cruel reality of what society thinks of those who swim against the stream; those brave, individualistic, creative, loving human beings we all must aspire to
be, despite any opposition from our peers.

In order to shatter these prolific views society has infringed upon us, we must constantly and consistently emanate positive energy, forward thinking, acceptance, and love. In doing this, not only will we encourage and inspire others to do the same, but we will also break down the walls that for so long have isolated us from one another. We have the ability to shed the deadened, hollow skin of past societies and expose love in its most raw and honest form. Instead of trembling at our differences, we will learn to embrace and celebrate them. For it is fear of the unknown which creates feelings of disturbance among our human realm; and in this age of globalization and advancing technology, we are now, more than ever, at a pivotal turning point in history. Rather than assuming the traditions and biases of previous cultures, we must exert our capacity to experience life in our own terms, and know our world personally; because it is once we begin to understand one another, that the fear of otherness will dissipate and leave, in its absence, nothing but love.