Good What Happens To US When We Label Things Or People We Fear As Monsters? Essay Example

Nowadays, people live in a very difficult reality, trying to coexist with so-called monsters. However, monsters in this very context are not mythical creatures like boggles or chimeras. "Modern" and real monsters are our fears, things, and people we are fighting with and against.
Friedrich Nietzsche once said: “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you” (Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146). The first part of his saying means that a person should be careful when fighting with this or that monster, or something negative, as it can influence he or she and, eventually, will make him or her a materialization of the evil or monster that person was fighting against. Asma gives a good example of how easily one can become a monster pretending that he fights with monsters too. The story mentioned by Asma happened in 2006 when four armed men in Afghanistan punished a headmaster of a high school and teacher, whose name was Malim Abdul Habib. They broke into his house and made his wife and children watch how they decapitate Habib. He was guilty of educating girls along with boys, which is not accepted by the majority of Muslims (66). Obviously, those who were trying to fight with a monster who have broken one of the rules of religion appeared to be even a greater monster. Moreover, according to Western or American cultures and religion, a person who gives education and has its own opinion cannot be labeled as a monster at all. The second part can be understood as follows: when a person tries to understand the darkest side of life of the truth, or in other words "the abyss", the darkest things will enter him or her. It is so as the one who want to get knowledge cannot be an observer and should be ready to face the consequences of the newly-acquired knowledge. Basically, our monsters and the darkest side of our life or the truth are integral part of everyday life. In this regard, King speaks about horror films and why people go to the cinema to watch a horror. Some reasons can be easily explained. This is the way of people’s showing that they are not afraid of their fear and that they can dare the nightmare. In a way people look “into the abyss”. But a horror film as King says does its dirty job, making this abyss enter them. The thing is that a horror film appeals to all the worst that is in people. It gets unchained and lets the base instincts free. It makes people realize their nastiest fantasies and thoughts (17-18).
It is interesting to know that monster labeling has its roots in the history. Poole refers to Christopher Columbus who was seeking not only gold or slaves in the New World but monster as well. Moreover, his descriptions reminded the description of monsters, saying that the natives decapitated victims and drunk their blood. Columbus desire to look for monsters in the new world was based on the theological speculation about monsters and devil's work and ongoing conflicts with the Islamic forces, made explorers consider these races monstrous and evil, giving them the status of the enemies of God. In fact, Europeans found the monsters they were looking for. It should be said, that they were used to ascribe monstrous moral qualities to the people they met. It began with explorations of African territories. Actually, it gave start and grounds for the “racist imagination” of today’s West, or in other words, it wast early monster labeling (176-178).
Going back to the present times, there arises a question: how do we cope with the monstrous part of our life when putting a ‘monster label’ on something we fear or looking into the abyss?
Asma says that today a lot of believers and supporters of human progress point out that today the concept of monsters is disappearing and, what is more, no longer useful. Definitely, it can't be the truth, as, first of all, they are still very useful and have become part and parcel of the moral imagination as the human vulnerability is something permanent. Secondly, they are on the rise. It seems that people simply can't get enough of zombies and vampires that drive film industry (61).
It is very difficult to list the reason for the above-mentioned rise of monsters. It may be rooted in the social anxiety of people, or can be explained by involvement into war conflicts or economic downturn. In general, monsters can symbolize human vulnerability and symbolize crises, being at the same time "imaginative foils" for our thinking about possible responses and actions to threats, that can be inner and outer. Going back to horror films, when watching them we are likely to play these situations in our imagination and think what would we do if we were at the place of the person who are chased by zombies (62).
Therefore, monsters help as to envisage our good life or, better to say, as secure life. Our ethical beliefs and convictions should be developed in the context of real and imagined threats and challenges. Logically, we can discover our values only in the situation where we face "trials", and nobody but monsters help us to rehearse these potential situations. It is obvious that we are unlikely to meet a zombie in the real life, but we might be robbed, assaulted, harassed, etc (63). These are our fears we putting monster labels on. We may be lucky if we haven't had to survive the above-listed situations but our monsters help us to play out the situation and prepare the relevant response.
Summing everything up it should be said that as long as there are obstacles and real enemies and threats in our life, we will put a monster label on them, helping ourselves to be prepared to meet them in real life. However, if one decides to fight a monster, he or she should remember that there's a very thin border between remaining a human and becoming a monster themselves.