 Smells like Fear Spirit
Having descended from its old English and proto-Germanic ancestors, the word "fear" was first defined as a combination of "far," meaning "ambush" in Old Saxon, and "harm, distress, deception" in Old Norwegian; and "gefahr," used to express danger in German. The word "fear" that we know today carries with it a punch - a distinct and undeniable connection between the word and the sensation. Fear is ingrained within the human mind. It is why the galaxy's eldest, Gılgamesh, was afraid of mortality! It's the reason the beautiful Dorian Gray faced ugliness - his biggest nightmare - through his reflection in the mirror. It's why Willy Wonka, probably one of the best fictional chocolate makers, shrieked with aversion when he saw a white strand in his hair. In Medieval times, the phobia of Europeans was water, in the belief of getting old.
The strangest thing is, when researched further, the world's oldest and maybe most permanent "fear" remains without a solid anti-thesis. The first thing that comes to my mind is "bravery." Yet is it truly correct? Are all people who possess "bravery" without "fear?" Consider Napoleon, who is believed to have sheltered the cruelest of horrors behind his ego. Ultra-courageously, the Mermaid leaves the ocean for her love, yet wasn't her biggest insecurity to be rejected, which lead to her death in the famed Andersen fairy tale? What about ignorance? Does ignorance hold panic's hand; or do those who know more escape fear?
While my internal discussions became so intense it became harder to hear "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Mr. Cobain, unbeknownst to him, solved my one-variable (fear)
n-unknown equation with a single word: Teen. With an excitement to discover the world and an opposition to order, it seems that "teen" should and must have been the antithesis of "fear!" "Teen," with is youthfulness, inexperience, and non-exclusiveness, should and must have been the light to the grayness unease brings within.
An American English word formed in 1621, the word "teen," and the people the word identifies, has an unusual power the term "bravery" lacks. The limitations, the rules and the obligations gain more vicious meanings than normal words. The fear that teens are banned from politics because some are afraid of the interpretations they may acquire, while the others get frightened about a possible disaster. What they seem to underestimate is that, in a world of distress, if such a powerful figure as a teenager lacks freedom of speech, especially about some notions considered as taboos (1777, Pacific oriented) just because of an ambiguous concept like "fear," the dynamism needed by every single living creature will fade in the crucifying brutality of tremor.
Fear. Korku. Miede. Crainte. Furcht. Medo. Timore. It can come in any number of word forms, and also shows it's hideous face in many ways. As long as the creature which scientists call Homo sapiens, or more commonly humans, continue to burn oxygen, fear will always remain a dark part of life. We can either make our teens battle with the murk and show their power; or let their teen-spirits rot and smell like concrete fear. The choice is yours.
Işıl Kutluay (ECON/II)
i_kutluay@ug.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr
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