“The opposition to those who work for social change does not come only from those who are the guarantors of the status quo. Again and again it has been demonstrated that the lines are held by those whose hold on security is sure only as long as the status quo remains intact. The reasons for this are not far to seek. In Jesus-An Interpretation, Thurman examines how the masses are controlled and by what forces. “The masses of men live with their backs constantly against the wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed.” (Thurman, 3) It is what is feared by the rabbit that cannot ultimately escape the hounds.This book addresses the disinherited peoples of the earth in the chapters Jesus-An Interpretation, Fear, Deception, Hate, and Love. But here, it is important to point out, a particular kind of physical violence or its counterpart is evidenced it is violence that is devoid of the element of contest. Of course, physical violence is the most obvious cause. It is spawned by the perpetual threat of violence everywhere. Violence, precipitate and stark, is the sire of the fear of such people. When the basis of such fear is analyzed, it is clear that it arises out of the sense of isolation and helplessness in the face of the varied dimensions of violence to which the underprivileged are exposed. It has its roots deep in the heart of the relations between the weak and the strong, between the controllers of environment and those who are controlled by it. It is a mood which one carries around with himself, distilled from the acrid conflict with which his days are surrounded. It is nowhere in particular yet everywhere. It is a climate closing in it is like the fog in San Francisco or in London. The ever-present fear that besets the vast poor, the economically and socially insecure, is a fear of still a different breed. Our homes, institutions, prisons, churches, are crowded with people who are hounded by day and harrowed by night because of some fear that lurks ready to spring into action as soon as one is alone, or as soon as the lights go out, or as soon as one’s social defenses are temporarily removed.
Then there is fear which has to do with aspects of experience and detailed states of mind. Fears are of many kinds-fear of objects, fear of people, fear of the future, fear of nature, fear of the unknown, fear of old age, fear of disease, and fear of life itself. There is nothing new or recent about fear-it is doubtless as old as the life of man on the planet. “Fear is one of the persistent hounds of hell that dog the footsteps of the poor, the dispossessed, the disinherited.
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