It’s time to preach again; the subject of today’s sermon is fear. In the last week there was a massacre in a synagogue, two blacks killed in a store when the killer couldn’t get into the black church, and a spate of bombs sent to opponents of Trump through the mail. Our fight or flight hormones are racing. I’m not going to write about those incidents but about fear and fear’s place in politics.
The right, and extremist of all stripes use fear as a tool of control. When I was young the fear was of Russia, China, and Communism. There was Joe McCarthy warning of Communists in the government, there was the bomber gap, the missile gap, and the Domino Theory. Then with the great Civil Rights Re-alignment came the domestic fear of the blacks, largely spoken in the coded language of crime. “Law and Order” was the conservative trademark. Now with changing demographics it’s become fear of all minorities, spoken of as immigrants but extending to those who are not white Christians even if born in the US. In such an environment anti-Semitism was bound to surface. It’s always there but it needs a weakening of our civil immune system to manifest.
This is not an American phenomenon, it’s as old as humanity. Pericles warned Athens of the power of Sparta. Fascism came to power out of fear of Communists. Stalin stoked fear of Trotskyites and counter-revolutionaries and purged millions. Mao did the same and fanned the flames of the Cultural Revolution. When people are afraid they can be manipulated; they will cede power and freedoms to the strong man that will protect them.
Fear makes people irrational. It interferes with thought, we follow our hormones not our minds. So now Trump is terrifying his core with threats of an invading army from the south filled with terrorists from the Middle East. In reality it’s desperate people fleeing violence and poverty in Honduras looking for a better life, just as my grandparents did. They are mainly women and children, but he’s sending 5000 soldiers to the border to repel them.
With all the fears being spread by the right, we should not spread fear amongst ourselves. Fear makes people stupid, that’s the last thing we need. Hate crimes are an enormity that must be stopped, but they are not something to live in fear of. Thirty thousand people die a year in car accidents, yet we don’t drive in fear. We don’t even think about it. It doesn’t mean that driving isn’t dangerous, it means we take precautions, we wear seatbelts, we make laws to make cars safer, we don’t drink and drive, we don’t text and drive; at least we shouldn’t. People who are afraid to go out for fear of hate crimes, mass shootings, and terrorist attacks, will text and drive and not wear seatbelts. Why? Fear makes people stupid. We overreact to some dangers and are in denial about others.
I can’t tell you to not be afraid, we can’t control our emotions. I’m a person who can’t do simple things because of anxiety; it’s not the same as fear, but it’s similar. Telling you to not be afraid is like telling an anxious person to calm down, counter-productive. What I can ask you to do is realize the fear lives in your hormones and reptile brain, not your mind. It’s difficult to stop feeling it but you can work on not spreading it. Fear is contagious. You can’t stop being afraid but you can resist posting about it on social media and making others afraid. Don’t do the work of the demagogues. They want to spread fear. You shouldn’t. Demagogues spread fear, leaders allay it, leaders give a message of hope. Leaders act like Franklin Roosevelt who told us that we have nothing to fear, but fear itself. Whose example are you going to follow, FDR’s or Donald Trump’s? Did you read Dune? Do you know the Litany Against Fear? Have you recited it to yourself? I have.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
It’s good advice. Fear is the mind-killer. Even if your afraid don’t make others. Keep people thinking not fearing. When people are afraid they are not just stupid but dangerous. People who speak strongly about gun control are now calling for people to arm themselves; the same canard the NRA has been spreading. Arming yourself make you less safe, not safer. When people are afraid they attack out of ear that if they don’t they’ll be attacked. You start to see strangers as the enemy; exactly as Trump is trying to get people to do. Don’t believe me, listen to Master Yoda.
I’m not saying to do nothing. We drive in cars but we wear out seatbelts. We will live our lives but speak out against the hate. We’ll work to elect people that spread hope not fear. We will not sit quietly when others speak calumnies against immigrants, blacks, LGBT, Jews, women, Hispanics, or anyone. We act out of hope to make things better, not as a reaction to fear.
Now I’m going to act out of hunger; I’m going to eat. You’ll do as you wish, but we’ll be better off if you don’t spread fear.
Wise Madness 