Recently, after plenty of stalling, I finally got around to watching Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s "The Revenant" starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, a navigator on a pelt gathering expedition who is mauled savagely by a bear and left for dead by his comrades. Watching the film I became uncomfortable at the sight of how helpless Leo is when pit against the bear, and how this has become a recurring theme in modern film culture to reestablish a fear of predators. I was frightened by this scene because it reinforces my view of human frailty, but the message of the film is also very clear about the determination of man to be as unforgiving and stubborn as possible and the probably to do things that are clearly beyond our control as conquerors. This mentality is what pits us against each other and binds us together. We are at the top of the food chain as a collective, but individually we are shown through this film that we are only nearing the top by our desire instilled by others. We motivate ourselves to survive out of instinct, rather than love for life.

I fear a lot of animals, and I know that recently we have been debating the instance about Harambe the gorilla. A lot of people have said that it was unjust, and a lot of people have said that it was necessary. Those are not always mutually exclusive. Fear motivates us to protect our own at all cost, that our way is the best way and that there is no other way to interpret conventional truth. I have been bed ridden from spider bites that have melted my skin off and would gladly have had someone shoot the spider. I have narrowly avoided a stampede of Emus while sandboarding in Western Australia. You don’t know when nature is going to happen or when it will turn ugly. I had recurring nightmares from the age of 6 until the age of 12 about werewolves from "Scooby-Doo" and the shadow of a bear from a weird episode of Barney at around the same time. Fear is instilled in us by things that are truly dangerous. Gorillas and alligators are dangerous and sometimes we fear that they will be as dangerous as we are.