I didn't win on the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize, 2025 (on the topic "Fear"), I got a notification about it today. Thus I'm going to share my essay here, because it is non-fiction (but I do not plan to share my losing poetry or fiction):
VIPs can fear
I fear of dogs, especially the large ones like a pit bull, especially when there are more of them. I would like to show you that I am right. Flies do not seem to fear, neither do locusts. That is because it is a good strategy for them not to fear in the struggle for existence. Many other animals fear, however, humans included. That is because evolution favours fear in many cases. Thus it is reasonable to fear sometimes, and it is reasonable not to fear at other times. Still, there are people who tend to fear more often, they are the cowards. Traditionally, cowardice is considered a bad trait, while its opposite, courage is considered a virtue since at least Aristotle. Indeed, Aristotle taught courage (and not audacity), and his disciple, Alexander the Great successfully applied it to spread the ancient Greek language and culture more in antiquity. However, this fact does not justify the claim that courage is better than cowardice in general, or in our case of fear of dogs. We need to examine the question further.
As far as we believe, Socrates, Aristotle's teacher's teacher, said that "Virtue is knowledge", and Aristotle himself taught that "Courage is a virtue", so if both Socrates and Aristotle were right, then we could infer that "Courage is knowledge". According to this theory, the people who know more about dogs and about fighting may be usually less afraid of dogs than those who only have their instincts of fear. For instance, news about someone strangling a cougar has given me some more courage against dogs. Other examples may be found in the novel "Call of the Wild" by Jack London, so this could also help, at least when we have clubs. (People with clubs could easily beat dogs in that novel.) Still, there are many times when I fear of dogs and I don't think that more knowledge could help, except for knowledge about Heaven. There is also knowledge that increases fear, like the Wikipedia List of fatal dog attacks including a lot of cases about pit bulls. Simply, there may be cases where the chances of dogs are better in a fight. Consequently, cowardice in these cases may be a virtue, if virtue is still knowledge.
Perhaps it will be enlightening to you if I share the details of some specific cases where I fear of dogs. The shortest route from/to the city center passes by a house with a German Shepherd dog there. The gate is usually closed, but sometimes it was open and the owner of the dog was there. Therefore, I usually take another route. (Once I went that way in spite of the dog and the gate open, because I was in a depressed mood.) In other cases, we went to my grandmother's house by bike. There is a house with many big dogs on the way, where the gate is usually closed, but sometimes it was open and the owner of the dogs was far away in the house. Therefore, I prefer not going that way, if I can... and I do not bless those who keep big dogs.
Am I a coward? This really seems to be so, because I am also timid when approaching women. But I can explain. One of my acquaintances has told me that he drank alcohol to pluck up courage to talk to a girl. Our fear of courtship might be justified when we unconsciously feel that the girl or woman is not the right companion for us. Otherwise, our Nature may allow us to overcome this fear anyway. Now if not everyone can be our partner, then we are VIPs (very important persons), at least to ourselves! Thus the lack of bravery might mean something positive, something of value! VIPs also deserve more protection from dogs and from other attackers. Fear can mean such a protection. VIPs should not depend on the mercy of dogs!
Once I walked in the city, and I saw a German Shepherd dog (or a similar one) on the other side of the street closed in a large yard. As far as I remember, it saw me, too. I raised my arm and shaped my fingers as if I were holding a sword. I imagined that it was the Sword of God (Sword of Attila) or a lightsaber (from Star Wars). Then the dog seemed to fear and whine.
