Words Of Fear - Page 2

Compared to what we experience on a daily basis now, those days seem positively tame in comparison. It's not just politicians and preachers any more who plant the seeds of fear in our hearts and minds. From every newspaper, radio, and television come the voices of "experts" and "pundits" with an axe to grind.

Many of these people have no claim to expertise in the fields they pontificate on, just an ability to manipulate and increase circulation or the Nielson ratings. They seem to have an inherent talent for finding the buttons to push that will create a panic reaction in their audience. A scared person can quickly become an angry person, and an angry scared person needs someone to blame.

You could be a poor white person without a job and blaming the immigrants for stealing work or a poor black in the inner city blaming the whites for your predicament. You could be part of the middle class watching your savings disappear as the cost of living goes through the roof and blaming the poor for stealing tax dollars and being a drain on the economy. You could be a woman blaming men for not being allowed to choose what happens to your body or a Christian blaming gays for the decline of morality — it's all the same thing.

The great American novelist, William Faulkner, in his acceptance speech on receiving the Nobel Prize for literature in the 1950s, said the current generation of people would grow up haunted by the threat of nuclear destruction. He made the point that this atmosphere of fear would affect everything - from the arts to lifestyle and down to basic human inter reactions.

The ensuing years have more than borne out his prediction and we can see the results of such prolonged exposure to fear in almost all aspects of our society. Personal relationships fail due to the fear of trusting another individual. Intolerance of differences in culture, religion, race, and sexuality has increased with our fear of anything unknown. The exchange of ideas has disintegrated as our need to protect ourselves has grown and our differences of opinion are less likely to be tolerated.

Who is going to be willing to listen to the ideas of those we are told to fear, especially if the fear is irrational and based on emotional responses? Not very many of us, I would think. Dependant on how the fear manifests itself in the world plays a significant role in our abilities to resolve the circumstances of its creation and continuation.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

Visit Richard Marcus's author page — Richard Marcus's Blog