Are we still cavemen?

Recently I saw the animated movie “The Croods’ with my kids.  I really enjoyed the movie but  beyond the fun stuff there was a strong message.  The theme I am talking about is fear.  

The cavemen in the movie had a lot of things to fear everyday  – there were creatures who wanted to eat them, or other creatures who wanted to fight them for food – every day it was a battle for survival in a harsh world.  The Dad in this movie had a favourite saying “never not be afraid” in otherwords, fear everything, all the time!

The teenage daughter in the movie questions this fear.  She asks “What kind of a life is this?” when they are stuck in a cave for days on end because they are afraid of what is outside.  “What is the point of living?” she asks.

As the story unfolds they are forced out of their familiar home and life into a totally new world where hiding and living in fear no longer works.  They have to  start “thinking” and “acting” differently and being creative to respond to their surroundings, instead of just reacting from fear.  The resistance in the Dad is huge, he does not want to change his ways - ways that have worked for a long time - to try unknown ways.  They meet a "new guy" who they think is crazy, but his innovative new ways of thinking help them out of danger many, many times.

It reminds me how we still carry that primitive caveman fear around in us although we no longer have creatures hunting us and we don’t need that fear to survive anymore.  It is hard to shake and live in this new world where the fear actually holds us back instead of saving us.  The cavemen instinct of fear could potentially help us in a situation that could be harmful (such a avoiding oncoming traffic) but we have evolved so that we don't need it any more as a constant presence of protection.  The caveman instinct keeps us small and safe - but as the girl in the movie says "What kind of life is this?".  Taking risks (sensible risks of course) and chances to live an extra-ordinary life brings out that fear in all of us - it is ingrained from our earliest of histories.

As the title in the movie poster says "if they don't evolve, they'll be history".  Is that what we are facing today as well - if we don't evolve in this changing world and leave our fear behind, then we won't thrive.  Something to think about...

---