Don't Be Scurred

     "Fear causes most - if not all - of the problems in human relationships." I coined this little phrase years ago and over time it's held true for me. When I look at a problem I'm having with someone in my life, I can always find fear of some sort at the bottom of it.
     The other day I was talking with an interesting woman I've recently met about the reasons for war and political unrest around the world. I pulled out the aforementioned saying as a reason why people can't seem to cooperate to make sure everyone has their basic needs for sustaining life met. She opined that greed causes a lot of these sorts of problems. So I got to thinking, what are the connections between fear and greed? Does greed stem from a fear that, if you don't have more than enough, you will someday not even have enough?
     What do you think? Is there fear at the bottom of greed? Do humans just want more and more stuff because we're greedy or do we want it because we fear running out unless we stockpile? Are we afraid if we don't grab things from others they'll grab from us or that someday that resource will be gone and we'll be without unless we take some now?
     I know we humans are very complex creatures, so perhaps I'm oversimplifying this. But I read years ago in some self-help book (the bane of modern civilization!) that even anger is a secondary emotion we feel because, underneath somewhere, we're feeling the primary emotion of pain or fear - emotions we label as "negative" and that leave us feeling uncomfortably powerless. We prefer to feel the anger because it makes us feel more powerful, less helpless. And when I thought about that one I could see truth in it, at least in my own emotional world. And I began looking for and trying to root out the fears that cause me to feel unjustified anger with others. After all, "perfect love casts out fear", and I want to be a loving person.
     So now I'm thinking, if greed is rooted in fear, doesn't that make it unloving toward ourselves and others? If we act and react based on underlying emotions we don't understand or even know are there, aren't we at the mercy of, or enslaved to, those emotions? Shouldn't we try to be guided by well-thought-out principles rather than continually changing feelings? I'm thinking here. What do you think? Let's keep thinking...