A coworker was just talking about how a friend of his is afraid of goats (because when he was a kid, he went to a petting zoo and a goat ate his shoes). I thought at first the coworker said “ghosts.”
That got me thinking: which is more pathetic to be afraid of: the common everyday animal that does exist, or the actually genuinely scary thing that doesn’t?
Goats, even though I’m sure ghosts don’t exist. There’s something in my brain, and I think many humans, that creates “bad stuff” in dark places where you can’t see and an enemy could be hiding.
I think being afraid of something that doesn’t exist is more pathetic than being afraid of something that does exist, even if the latter is relatively harmless. A goat stepped on my foot once and it hurt, so I know they have the potential to cause harm.
Now if you ask me whether (or wether? ) it’s more pathetic to be afraid of a goat or a toddler, I’d have to vote for the goat.
That’s my attitude: being afraid of ghosts is really just being afraid of creepy noises in the dark and irrationally attributing it to the paranormal instead of irrationally attributing it to prowlers or wild animals.
Goats are adorable. I’d have several goats as pets in my home, if they didn’t have a habit of peeing on themselves and otherwise being non-housebreakable.
Ghosts, on the other hand, are scary and unknown. I can understand being afraid of them. So for me, being afraid of adorable goats is more pathetic.