@philosophyminis: Kafka once wrote a short story called The Burrow, about an animal that became obsessed with protecting itself against imagined threats. It burrows down, it builds up walls, and it stays up day and night, waiting for this imagined threat which never comes. But of course, the story isn't about the animal. It is about you and me. Most of what we defend ourselves against will never arrive. A break-in, a betrayal, a diagnosis, a redundancy. We build up these walls and we brace ourselves. We constantly wait in anxious anticipation for a fear that never manifests. And so we become obsessed and trapped because our mind cannot differentiate between a real and imagined danger. Kafka's burrow is terrible in two ways. The first is that we can never hope to win a war against an imagined enemy. We cannot hold what we do not know, and we cannot overcome that which exists only in a nightmare. And the second, as the Stoic Seneca put it, we often suffer more in the imagination than in reality. We catastrophise and we exaggerate. Our nightmares take on an entire weight of their own. And so the burrowed animal spent so long in their paranoid fortress that they forget how to live life. They are constantly worried about an imagined danger just over the horizon, that they forget to leave their home and enjoy the life they have to actually live. Because sometimes the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And sometimes we have to step out of the burrow if we are to live at all.

Satire Boy :

anth73 :

Kafka and the insurance industry in cahoots?

David Aronson :

I am still gonna put on my seatbelt

limak🇪🇺🇵🇱 :

Sometimes I wonder how on Earth I'm learning more on philosophy and life on the app with stupid, short videos than I did in my whole school life.

RemoteControl :

Yes, I really should get out more👍

Hadingdong :

there is a third view, and that is that the fear never manifests because we obsess over it manifesting, the thief watches me lock my door every day, leading to him not robbing me.

$? :

I'm going to cancel my car insurance 🤞

aman :

Mr. Thompson, I am so glad that I came across your page. I love your content very much, your philosophical analysis and the way you explain it. Many of your videos just hit on spot, help me to unravel my daily struggles and answer me a questions. And I thank you for that.

rosavitae :

“What you fear, you can’t escape.” - old romanian proverb;

isabelferreira5836 :

The anticipation of what can realy never hapens, is my reality.

sila☆ :

ok cancelling applecare+ right now

dams.mchl :

“I’ve had a lot of a worried in my life, most of which never happened”

euda.j :

ironically (again), this is such a huge part of who kafka simply was, as an individual and a writer. a pulsing, neverending anxiety.

M D :

Your contributions are excellent. Dr. Marc Dietrich

timetraveller 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 :

yeah this is kinda true

Larrssa :

‘Isn’t it Ironic’, Alanis Morrissette xx

Luna Emmyson :

There's a wholesome animation about this! I think it was a mole 🤔?

Tiroyamodimo :

same applies to imagined benefits.

Mariano :

Fantasy fiction 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 :

Risk assessments have a place!

Dunsuppin :

That's why insurance companies are so profitable.

ViperVile :

so how can we overcome this?

D-don :

Most problems we have in the world is that we tend to live for the future. we forget we are in the present moments. Once you live in present you will enjoy the beauty of life.

Mr . :

you have a Minecraft

🐀 3rnie® 🎧 :

Y’know what? I SHOULD get on that rollercoaster