Question

The emergence of rationalism and empirical thinking during the Enlightenment challenged long-held ideas and values of traditional social and cultural institutions. Why does change inspire fear? Must it always?

Answer 1

One of the most important and unchanging phenomena is change to which people of all walks are afraid of. This would mean that people would undergo cognitive dissonance when they face change because it would challenge their existing beliefs, customs and practices. Movements such as the enlightenment and reasoning challenged the widely held religious beliefs and the monarchy all around the world. Emancipation abolished slavery which brought fear in the minds of the majority white people in the South because they always treated the black people as inferior. Women’s rights movements brought fear in the minds of the men who always held women under their control. Thus, people from all walks of life would be afraid of change. However, it’s those who dare and envision a better society that would pull the strings of change which all the others would eventually hold on to progress.

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