Afraid Of Our Own Shadows

We live in a world in which many people are pre-occupied and in many cases even obsessed with safety and security. One of the great ironies to me is that most of the pre-occupation and obsession seems to be coming from the most safe and secure places in the world, western industrialized nations. And some would say most westerners are safe and secure as a result of our attention and efforts to be so. 

Even so, we still aren't satisfied. We continually build more walls, create more rigid borders, develop more stringent security screenings, install more alarm systems and firewalls, and retreat more and more into private bastions. What does it mean to be safe and secure, anyway, and what are we afraid of?

Mostly we are afraid of each other, which really means we are afraid of ourselves. Because most of us can't bear to face our own fears, insecurities, anger, deficiencies, and violent tendencies, we project them on other people. 

This morning I got the following quote in a daily email I receive:

No one can develop alone. Now relationship is possible only through the contact of inner worlds. We meet through our inner worlds. To understand another you must enter into his inner world but this is not possible if you have not entered your own inner world. The first step therefore towards entering consciously into and understanding the position of another is attained through entering into and understanding the position of oneself and unless this step is taken, to as full a degree as is possible, there is little or no possibility of entering into and understanding the position of another person.  
~ Maurice Nicoll   (Inward Outward) 

Perhaps at the core of our personal and collective insecurity is that too many people in the world are afraid of our own shadows.