Fear!

Other day, I was listening to a poem by Kavi Grace “भय इथले संपत नाही’ composed by Hridaynath Mangeshkar and sung by Lata Didi on Vividh Bharati. I wondered; can human race get rid of fear? Then I realized that it has been used for commercial benefit since ages and it is the core principle of many businesses.

Religion is the first and foremost entity who has been exploiting it since centuries. Believe me no religion is exception to it. Let’s talk about my religion. Almost all the pooja’s are example of it. Most of them have very noble purpose. But we have already forgotten the basic principles behind it and we do it out of fear. The same is being exploited by our priest. Most of us perform Satyanarayan Pooja. Listen to those 5 Adhyay priest narrates during the pooja. All of them say that if you do not perform the pooja as promised, it will bring bad luck to you. Many of us just do it not to break the tradition or out of fear.  

The next such community is Astrologers! The irony is that people have even developed the software for so-called science. In fact, many will try to convince you that how it is scientific and based on statistics but lack single evidence! Once I heard an interview of Sharad Upadhye a famous astrologer. She was asking many questions on gems and precious stones to him. He was explaining the benefits of them. At the end she asked him a question after looking at many rings in his hand. What are those precious stones? He laughed and said that all of them are dummy stones! Communities who have never seen or prepared their horoscope have started making it in recent days. Usage of horoscope for fixing marriages has increased to disgusting level and all out of fear! Vastu Shastra, Feng Shui and what not! Today no builder even dare to build south facing flat! Ironically, richest, and famous shops on Laxmi road in Pune are South facing!

Fear sells and can get you good money is a new realization to the profession who is not supposed to exploit it. It is the medical profession! Bird Flu is a classic example of it. In fact, there were very few human deaths due to bird flu. But fear of bird flu was sold across the globe and one pharma company made fortune in it. The same thing was repeated during swine flu. All of us have experienced deserted streets during its outbreak in 2009.  Do you know that there are no convincing test results that show Tamiflu cures Swine flu? Many NGO’s have demanded complete test results of Tamiflu. But Roche (only one manufacture in the world) had never provided any comprehensive test results on its capability of curing swine flu or controlling its epidemic.  Roche made billions of dollars in selling this medicine throughout the globe!

Last but not least, the political parties use the same model for garnering the votes. No political party is exception to it! Christianity is in danger was sold by George Bush in 2005. The entire international politics is played on the tenets of fear whether it is Iran or Iraq or any other so called rogue nations.

We are taught to live in fear! In fact, we have institutionalized fear! Insurance companies are the great example of it. Fear of not getting good school, fear of not getting good marks and good college, fear of not getting good job, fear of losing the job and finally fear of death! You would agree that all of these fears have already transformed into business for someone else. I wonder when we will learn to live with courage, as rationalist and with happiness! But where is the school for them!