What are humans biggest fear?

I would guess that throughout all past history, the present and future the answer is death and dying. I say death and dying because many people fear death, but others will say they don't fear death itself, they fear the pain of dying, or slowly dying due to illness or injury.

Philosophy and religion are so prevalent because people want to understand how they can best live their life and come to terms with the reality of death. Some find comfort in religion so that they know dying isn't so bad when they go to Heaven, Valhalla, or whatever else.

But what is that fear made of? When you fear something, for example, a car accident, are you actually afraid of the event that might happen in the future, or are you afraid because of car accidents you've witnessed or experienced in the past?

In both cases, time is involved.

Not physical time, but psychological time: the past and the future. When you think about it, your thoughts create scenarios, imaginations, and illusions of accidents that might happen or have happened. The Stoics recognized this distinction and Marcus Aurelius advised:

"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."

Our minds create scenarios, imaginations, and illusions of accidents that might happen or have happened. So, what you fear is not the actual accident, but the illusion of it. An illusion created by psychological time and thought.

Nothing more, nothing less. Fundamentally, fear is rooted in time and thought, which are essentially one and the same. Concept of time exists only in thought - there is no "past" or "future", except in our minds.

If we only focus on the present moment, which is the only time in which we can actually take action, we begin to understand a profound Stoic truth: All we ever have is now.

A man who has lived for 20 years and a man who has lived 80 years, have exactly the same to lose, the present moment. The future is not yet here, and the past no longer exists. The stakes we stand to lose, will never exceed the mere now.

If we recognize that fear attaches to things outside our control, in imagined futures or remembered pasts. Then we can return to the present and focus solely on what we can control, our thoughts and responses in the present moment, and as a result, fear will lose its grip on us.

Being self aware is a beautiful gift- it means that you are humble enough to admit you have flaws and intelligent enough to know how to deal with them in a way that makes you a better person. Yet many people lack self-awareness, why is that?

Perspective - No one is entirely self aware & (barring exceptional disorders) people are not entirely devoid of self awareness. It's probably unfair to say that they are not self aware & would be more fair to say that they weren't as aware as you thought they should be. Or were less self aware than you perceive others to be.

Privileges - Being self aware is a result of some form of emotional labor. Privilege is the lack of obligation to perform (a type) of labor. Some people exist at the intersection of quite a bit of privilege. They have experienced life in such a way that the kind of emotional labor that would lead to becoming self aware was not actually required of them.

Denial - This is a common defense mechanism. Sometimes people refuse to look at themselves because it would be too painful to do so. And it seems easier to them to stumble through life unaware of how they shape their lives than it would be to have to confront themselves, take responsibility & attempt to make a change

Obviously there can be any number of other reasons for a lack of self-awareness as well.

Being unable to self-reflect, could be a direct result of a trauma.

I also think it's a skill to self reflect. Some people don't have this skill simply because they don't practice it. The ability may be innate, but if the ability is never used, then it withers away. You are born with muscles, but if you never use them, they atrophy. The more you use your muscles, the better they get and i don't see self-reflection as an exception to this rule.

It could also be a result of suffering from a mental condition or cognitive disorder. Individuals who struggle with narcissistic tendencies or straight NPD don't have the ability to feel remorse or see fault in their own actions for example.

----------//----------

All these reasons and pitfalls, adds up to a large amount of people, unfortunately.

You see it driving on the roads when people cut you off.

You see it when people continue the same sabotaging behaviors over and over again in their relationships, but blame the other person.

Tons of examples. People just excuse it by saying, “that's just how I am.” Instead of working on improving themselves and looking inward for the answers to their problems.

It's not always someone else's fault. Sometimes it's you. You gotta take ownership for your role in your failures. Way too many people never do this, and as a result, never live the life that they could.

Swartz, 26, was a Harvard University student who helped develop the RSS standard and (kind of) co-founded Reddit. He was also a hacker, activist and internet freedom advocate, which i will talk a bit about below.

In 2008, Aaron Swartz downloaded 2.7 million public court documents from the PACER [Public Access to Court Electronic Records] database, aiming to make them freely accessible. PACER charged 0.08$ per-page despite the public domain status, resulting in a budget surplus of some $150 million, reported the New York Times.

In 1 of the 17 libraries, conducting a free trial of the PACER system, Swartz used the credentials of a Sacramento library and a Perl script to download 2.7 million court documents and later distribute them publically.
His actions led to an FBI investigation, but no charges were filed, as it was ultimately deemed that the documents were, in fact, public.

Between 2010 - 2011, through an unlocked wiring closet, Swartz used his Harvard University JSTOR [Journal Storage] account, to access a database of academic journals through MITs network and download approximately 4.8 million academic articles from JSTOR, "with the intent to distribute" according to prosecutors.

Although JSTOR declined to pursue charges and reached a settlement with Swartz in June 2011; under the terms that he surrendered the downloaded data, Swartz was arrested on the night of January 6, 2011 near the Harvard campus. Federal prosecutors, led by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, continued an aggressive case against him. The prosecution brought 13 felony charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, including wire fraud and computer fraud.

The case became highly controversial as prosecutors sought an extraordinary sentence: up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines if convicted. Many legal experts criticized the prosecution as disproportionate and politically motivated.

On the evening of January 11, 2013, Swartz committed suicide in his Brooklyn apartment, at the age of 26. Swartz's family and his partner created a memorial website on which they issued the statement:

"He used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place."

Below you can read the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto, written by Aaron Swartz.

The United States has one of the most uneven distributions of wealth and income among developed nations. According to data from the Federal Reserve, the top 10% of Americans hold approximately 69% of the nation's wealth and the top 1% hold 38% of the nation's wealth, nearly as much wealth as the collective bottom 90% of the nation.

Whats worse is that this disparity has grown substantially over recent decades. When examining wage data specifically, the contrast becomes even more pronounced. Social Security Administration figures reveal that the average American worker in the bottom 90% earns around $40,845 annually, while those in the top percentiles earn many many multiples of this amount. The wage gap between the highest earners and the average worker has expanded by roughly 350% since 1979.

This economic stratification affects various aspects of American life, from housing access to educational opportunities. Research from the Pew Research Center indicates that 67% of Americans believe the wealth gap has increased in the past 20 years — a perception supported by economic data. The Congressional Budget Office reports that between 1979 and 2019, real income for households in the top 1% grew by 160%, compared to a 26% increase for the middle 60% of the income distribution.