The Only Thing We Have to Fear...
Probably the most noticeable change since the last time I lived in the U.S. is the heavily charged environment of public fear. The experience of 9/11 has so traumatized the country of my birth, that it leaves many Americans in the constant fear that something like this could happen again. Usually this fear rides at a low level of consciousness; it still allows us to go to work, make stupid jokes, and go to sleep at night, but it influences the world of public thinking and decision-making so much that hardly any topic is covered in the news which does not betray some kind of fear motivating its discussion.
In this election season, the fear seems to be projected less onto various terrorist organizations and more onto whichever presidential candidate one dislikes most. The sense is that if that politician you dislike is elected then the country is in real danger, and this feeling is stronger now than in any other election I can remember in my life.
If I didn’t know better, my tendency would be to become deeply afraid of the way the media corporations continually reinforce this fear in American society. I often look around me and notice varying ways in which some individuals and organizations bend this fear to their advantage. It would appear that they are inflaming this fear in order to achieve multiple ends, from improving their ratings to influencing the election.
But I do know better. Having been away for so long, I can sense that my own fear is likely a response to the public fear all around me rubbing off on me too. Whether the American media really is horribly corrupt or not, my being afraid of it doesn’t do anyone any good. I must work hard not to be afraid of that, or other negative possibilities. While each part of the American community seems more and more eager to blame a certain group or segment of society for all the horrible things that could happen to us in the future, I would like to work hard not to succumb to the need to blame others that fear inspires.
At times like this, each person has a choice to make: whether to be a force for unity and agreement between individuals and groups around you, or to be a force for disunity and attacking whichever group you direct your fear at most. To feel afraid is natural, but when we allow that fear to control our actions, we must take it as a sign that we all have a lot of growing up to do—both on our own and as a society.
