What Are You Afraid Of?

Seems like we are moving back to the 50s. You know the time when everyone was working building cars and refrigerators and houses and raising families and cutting the grass and watching the new fangled television with rabbit ears, but the news reported that the commies had bombs and we had bombs and someone might just get upset and set off these bombs and we would no longer exist.

So our fear kept us sending boys and girls overseas to retain the red menace but we were not really into that. Besides the Nazis and Japs had been defeated and we wanted to know about Lucy and Lawrence Welk and cowboys and somewhat steamy detective paperbacks. The most we had to fear were the black and white rubber monsters on the big screen until the popcorn ran out.

Yet there is always some fear in our lives to make us check the lock on the door twice and look around the corner at the sound of footsteps.

We fear that we will be passed over for the next raise or our taxes will be audited. We fear that we will lose our love to another or the doctor will say he found a fiendish thingy that is not good for our long life expectancy. 

We fear death but know nothing about it. No one has ever come back to tell us what happens so we’ve written these tall tales of wings and harps and pits of eternal fire and misery but there is no science. There is somewhat proof that we all will die because we all do. Why can’t we just face the facts and make the most of it until the end?

Do we fear that boys might be girls and girls might be boys but they both have to pee? Do we fear that someone who doesn’t look like us or talk like us or believe the same as us are our enemy? Do we fear our God? Do we fear ourselves?

We fear the unknown and if the propaganda on the airwaves tells us constantly there is a spooky monster out there and we all should fear it, do we listen. If the message is clear of what the monster is and is repeated enough (check the book) we believe the fear is true.

As we shelter into our mundane lives of locks and guns and laws and regulators and propagators and defenders of our limited knowledge the fear may become real. If we group together to oppose the fear or react without the rational understanding of reality vs. fiction really bad things can happen.

There are some who view fear as an adrenaline rush and climb mountains and bungee jump and drive fast and jump out of airplanes to conquer their obsession against what would terrorize most of the sane folks. Glorification of warfare has those who feel invincible to move from video games to the battlefield until the real bullet hits.

So listening and watching the world events on your big screen smart devices while eating your pizza delivered by perhaps a subversive agent or a member of an organization mapping the neighborhood while your kids are playing video games being streamed to others through their online cameras and your security system is being hacked by your neighbors who wants to borrow your lawnmower forever and your dog’s collar is being bugged by the nice mailman who petted him when you were not looking and the ancient pipes dripping lead particles onto your toothpaste without thinking what is the chemical makeup of your cheese.

Just do like everyone else and it will all be all right.