Fear Itself

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt spoke these words to reassure a nation that was sliding into a prolonged economic depression, but these words are also relevant today, although perhaps for different reasons. An undercurrent of the past election campaign, and part of the post-election buzz, is quite literally that of fear. There is fear that Obama will discriminate against Whites, and there is fear and uncertainty over "what" his election means. My own daughters experience this, since they go to school in a place that is quite conservative. There is fear and uncertainty the range from discrimination to the idea that he is a Muslim. It is easy to dismiss these fears, since on the face of it, Obama has neither shown a disposition toward such behavior, nor is he a Muslim (nor should it matter). That being said, it is important to understand where these fears come from.

This is where we need to think of ourselves as a nation, and our trajectory over the past 30 years. Following Carter, who upset people by asking the people of the United States of America to look closely at themselves, the choice was made to look at others. Through our popular and political culture we have created two enemies-the other and each other. The former came in the shape of the fear of the soviets, then Arabs, then extremist Muslims; all seen as a common enemy against we could easily discriminate.

At the same time, we also saw a creation of another enemy--the American who disagrees with us. Beginning with the Reagan administration, but following a thread through every subsequent president, Democrat or Republican, has been a willingness to alienate and run over those with whom we disagree. This was accentuated in the mid-90s, and then came together in one big patriotic bash following 9-11.

So what is the consequence of this? The consequence is that when we discriminate against a whole people, or when we are willing to run each other out of political parties in internecine conflicts, we eventually come to fear that very thing being done to us. It is not that people see actual evidence of an Obama administration doing this to them nor are they imagining it being done to them. No, it is that they have lived it, done, carried it out, and can only imagine what it would feel to be on the end of those same actions. They themselves have provided the concrete model for that which they fear the most.

The fear itself becomes the spark for more fear, and the only a strong counter-dialogue of action may counter it. Words and ideas will not be sufficient, because they are not powerful enough to contradict the reality which has been constructed which has inscribed on our daily lives, on our daily relationships with one another. What we fear is each other at the moment, and it will take time to work out "dies diu".