I’m continuing my reporting on the current installment of Conservative Estimate, the recently founded website that is devoted to demolishing Conservatism.
Yesterday Mr. George showed us that Fear is at the bottom of all Conservatism, and that Fear boxes conservatives into very constricted patterns of thought.
Today he discusses what it will take to overcome the pervasive force of Fear: aligning ourselves against Fear and alongside Creativity and its companion, Freedom.
A detour around the whirling oranges will take us to his argument for today.
Mr. George begins by explaining that Fear has been the dominant force the Force in human existence in the past. All the Major Myths, he says, have their foundations set in Fear.
But the force that will guide the future is Creativity. It is the natural enemy of Fear:
The Force that will dominate the future is Creativity. It is the natural companion of Freedom, which has been increasing in the world for several centuries now. The time has come to realize that we can no longer both promote Freedom and hold on to Fear. Either we are going to remain fearful creatures and lose our freedom, or we are going to become free beings and lose our fear. Over the next few days we will show why this is so.
Most people, says Mr. George, do not understand that there is a profound connection between Creativity and Freedom, nor do they grasp the fact that both can be energized just by abandoning Fear.
Once you establish fears, you lock yourself into certain behaviors, certain opinions, certain views of the world. Thus locked in, your responses to events are largely determined; you limit yourself to trying to preserve the status quo, which you feel to be your safety zone.
Fear is the lock that keeps Creativity and Freedom in chains.
To break the lock is to give up Fear. And here is the secret connection between Freedom and Creativity: Refusal to submit to Fear opens up new vistas. New suns rise over the horizon. The fearless person can see destinations that fearful people cannot see, and they can set out for those places long before the fearful can even understand that there is a place to go.
Mr. George goes on to point out that fearlessness that is characteristic of true creative genius:
This is the real appeal of all those who have blessed humanity with their creative gifts. In at least one area of their lives they became utterly fearless; they set out to attain goals that the more fearful could not even imagine; and they brought into being things that were new, useful, and beautiful.
Now that he has elaborated on the enmity between Fear and Creativity, tomorrow Mr. George will reevaluate the primary fears at the bottom of Conservatism, and show how they lead us to live pathetically cramped lives.
I’ll be reporting back each day as a new installment appears.