naming an emotion or specifically a fear is the first step in controlling one’s own response to it. magically, to have a concept as simple as a noun’s dictionary definition offers us the opportunity to distance ourselves from the immediacy of experience. it’s as though the human race invented the jar in its own image, and ever since then has been spinning variations through linguistics, religion, science, certainly politics, even economics. i consider that the thing which most separates distinct groups or classes of people, like country vs. city or rich vs. poor, are the differences in how each group relates to the perpetual event of naming. [ Voldemort. vertically challenged. upwardly mobile. God. ] some names have permanence, others have fluidity. Even the set of names that connote permanence (presumably of relatively low Cardinality) exhibit fluidity. [ “Ours is the One True God” vs. “There is no God” ]
But in a physical way, for one group, the event of naming is a more permanent action. for this group, i daresay, life is more whole. because i do not believe our brains have evolved at the same rate that our population has expanded. for the other group, for whom naming is a commonplace action in and of itself, the strength of associations forged with each new and revised health alert, affordable home improvement, popular clothing item, or hott new spelling style is significantly weaker. A person of this group may expect to encounter foreign concepts or systems of thought from time to time, and may equally welcome them. A person may just as easily choose to systematically disregard that which is newer in favor for the more familiar. The difference is the perciever’s relationship to the primary emotional system, the comparative relationship of the unnamed, and (I suspect) percieved population density.
there are some feelings that have existed for so long, and that have been so taken for granted, that they appear to stand with the immovable constants that comprise Philosophy. such feelings shape the entire experience and perception of life.
to name such feelings completely an accurately, with strength, and publicly, will change a person’s life. as at a wedding. or a court’s verdict. each ritual overcomes fear.
