Waking Life, Laziness vs. Fear?

“Which is the most universal human characteristic: fear, or laziness?” (Waking Life)

For a while, this made me think about which was which, and when I tried to figure out it's "meaning", that just confused me more.

I can't imagine laziness being the most universal human characteristic. I'd like to think so, just because that would be a nice cop out, but really, it's not at all. It's fear which makes us lazy, the fear of things good and bad. Fear drives us to hide behind that thing we call "laziness," but without fear, how many lazy people would there actually be? The fear of recognition, though it seems like a silly thing, is what can hold people back and keep them from putting their all into things. The fear of making a mistake keeps people from trying to begin with. Fear is hard to overcome. Fear is what we like to pretend we don't have. But that's one of the big things that make us just like everything else in the world, everything else that's alive. If we didn't fear, then we'd probably be closer to vampires than humans; remnants of life; dead, but still alive. But fear also causes the impulses to overcome it. Laziness can be overcome simply, but just getting up, or actually doing whatever it is you've been putting off. Laziness is easy to beat. Fear? Not so much. Fear is much more of a mental thing, and it holds an unbelievable power over us. Mental restraints are much more powerful than physical. Physical restraints only keep our bodies, these things that harbour our souls, from doing things. They can't directly affect your mind. Mental restraints, however, can affect you mentally and physically. You need a mind to move, you need the motivation to get up and go. If that motivation is hidden by a fear, then you're left with only one thing to do: overcome the fear. Unless you overcome it, well, you're stuck. You can do other things, go around the obstacle and start a different path, but you'll never be able to move on in that same direction. That chance is basically gone.

Laziness, that's not a real restraint. Laziness is just, "I don't want to do that." It's fear without reason. Fear is, "I don't want to do that because..." Fear gives a reason, and there's always a reason. We as people don't work right if we don't have reasons. We don't simply not do something, that's not how it goes. That may be the excuse we use, but that is not true. There's always a reason, no matter how silly, strange, or insignificant that reason may be. Laziness is basically the cop out for what we don't want to recognize as fear. Admitting that we're lazy is easy, but admitting fear? That takes guts.

"Sanity is a madness put to good uses; waking life is a dream controlled." (Santayana)

Honestly, I don't particularly agree with this.

First of all, sanity is not a madness. I suppose that if you were crazy to the point that you produced logic out of your madness, then sure, that's a kind of sanity. Sanity is not a madness put to good uses, that's just wrong. The words are the exact opposite of each other. Sanity does not derive itself from madness. Madness comes from a lack of sanity, from being insane. I really disagree with this.

And "waking life is a dream controlled?" What does that mean, even? That we control life? Because we do not. Life is controlled by no human force, it is beyond us. If this is referring to God, then yes, God controls our waking life. We do not. Dreams, though, those are what we control, though we are not always aware of that control. Dreams are inspired by something, and then controlled by our bodies and minds. They are not controlled outside of the individual, because they exist purely in the individual. Waking life, that's not a dream controlled. Dreams pertain to one person. Waking life doesn't. Everything we do in our waking life affects everything else in the world. An action might have a small, insignificant effect, but then again, it might change the world. We don't have any control over how everyone else perceives us, on how they react to us, on how they live. Control is in the hands of someone else, and in my opinion that is God. But according to God, we have all been given free will. He doesn't control us. He may control the non-living, and the natural objects around us, but he does not control us.