It is pleasant to be a daredevil and show decisiveness in minutes of tension and risk. However, there are things that you can and should retreat to. Composure in these cases will be destructive and will affect fate extremely negatively, even fatally. What should a man be afraid of and why?
This question was answered by L. N. Tolstoy in the epic novel War and Peace. Andrei Bolkonsky went to war to build a career, rather than defend his home. He specifically volunteered for this event, not seeing anything in the fight except the opportunity to gain fame and honor. However, finding himself in a real bloody battle, he realized how much he was mistaken. In the name of the feat, Bolkonsky calls on the soldier to launch a hopeless attack, which ended in only useless bloodshed. He, as he wanted, received the fame and approval of Napoleon himself, even survived, but at the same time realized that war was not a place for career growth, it was a meaningless and merciless slaughter. There innocent people die, cries and lamentations of mothers, children and wives, left alone with their grief, are heard. Then the prince realized that such a bloody massacre should be feared by a normal person, and such figures as Napoleon are terrible idols of war, not heroes. One must be afraid of becoming as insensitive careerists as they are.
Another example was described by V. Shalamov in the work “The Last Battle of Major Pugachev.” The brave men did not spare their lives in the war for their homeland, but were captured by the will of fate. They thought that it was necessary to be afraid of the invaders, camp leaders, their trained shepherd dogs. But in fact, true and all-consuming horror awaited them in their homeland, where the "traitors", guilty of only surviving, were imprisoned in the same camp for an alleged crime. They shed blood for those who met them with bayonets and drove them into a cage. This same genocide of their fellow citizens was necessary to be afraid of more than the Nazis. And then the soldiers stole the guns, escaped from the camp and died in a frantic race for freedom, which was taken from them by inhuman officials.
Each of us needs to remember the shameful pages of world history and be afraid of their repetition. Wars, dictatorships, concentration camps and genocide of innocent people - this is what should cause fear and disgust at all times and in all countries.