Page 23 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

EDWARD C. STEWART

that they had conquered the predator monster, and had escaped from the fate of
being a prey by themselves becoming the predator. This neurological process
demonstrates Ovid’s idea of metamorphosis – that a strong emotion changes the
‘form’ of the person – and is central to the notion of human nature (Hughes
1997: 18). The nightmare of remaining a prey none the less persists and
continues to haunt the human spirit. To neutralize the prey’s feeling of dread,
humans turn fear into anger, revealing the strange bond that exists between
prey and predator.
In all Western societies and probably in others as well, anger is like a moving
object that assumes the form of a wild beast out of control (‘He was so angry,
he roared like a lion!’ or ‘Be careful, she’s a tigress when o ffended!’). The beast
is uncontrollable, so the angry person cannot be held responsible for his ram-
pages. It is the ‘other’, the person who precipitated the anger, who is deemed
responsible for the damage. The irrationality of such a profound feeling is
something like the mysterious realm of pain. 2
Children with no direct experience of large predatory animals naturally
seem fearful at first exposure. Charles Darwin himself noticed this fear when
visiting the zoo with his young son. Darwin wondered where the fear came
from (Ehrenreich 1997: 87). Does the brain contain an innate residue of
the truly fearful experience of predation? How does such a reaction link up
with aggression in human nature? Many theorists since Darwin’s day have tried
to understand the social consequences of fear and aggression. If aggression is
indeed an instinct, then it is necessary for society to suppress aggression in
every conceivable form and to prevent its automatic discharge. On the other
hand, if aggression occupies an intermediate status in the repertoire of instincts
and voluntary behavior, then the challenge for society is to canalize this
energy in ways that are least destructive to others, and most productive for the
individual (Storr 1968: 31).
The physical human being is equipped with a fear-fight-flight reaction and
with anxiety, which is a close relative to the fear of imminent attack. Panic
disorders, phobias, and chronic anxieties all represent evolutionary adaptations
to dangerous environments. Furthermore, the innate perception of the ‘stran-
ger’ and the ‘other’ assumes the presence of a ‘predator beast’. But how?
Barbara Ehrenreich argues:

What we seem to inherit, then, is not a fear of specific predators, but a
capacity to acquire that fear – for example, by observing the reaction
of adults to various potential threats – with efficiency and tenacity.
Hence, perhaps, the surprising frequency of predator animals in
dreams . . .
So we can say . . . that human beings inherit certain patterned
responses to threats and that the threat which originally selected for
these responses was probably that of predation. It seems likely, then, that
the primordial experience of predation at least colors our emotional

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