Response to outside reading, from a Biography of Genghis Khan
Fears are funny things. Sometimes the environment you grow up in can shape your fears. If you were a Mongol warrior in the 11th century, you would be terrified of lightning. Brave enough to charge in to battle in distant lands, but terrified of lightning. But it makes sense: out on the treeless Asian steppe, a mounted warrior would be the tallest thing for miles, so lightning would be a much greater threat, especially if you carried a metal sword. Here in the forested East coast, very few people die from lightning, so we don't have the same primal fear.
I am terrified of worms. I love snakes, but tiny earthworms give me the willies. Why? When I was three, I tried to eat one, and almost choked to death. As a result of that childhood trauma, I developed such a phobia. This is usually how these things work. I'm fine with lightning. But it makes me wonder about such fears like hydrophobia, claustraphobia and such. What sort of events or conditions would lead to those types of fears?
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