An epistle on fear

"Be not afraid." -Jesus of Nazareth, circa 33 A.D.

"Be afraid, be very afraid." -Hollywood screenwriter ("The Fly," 1986)

I suppose somewhere between those poles - between divine intervention and Hollywood melodrama - is the appropriate reaction to everyday life with its many challenges.

We should begin by saying - any rational conversation on the subject should begin by saying - fear is neither good nor bad in itself, but rather an emotional reaction to a sense of danger.

Fear thus motivates us to stay away from poisonous snakes, for instance. No one argues against fear in such a case, as everyone knows that self-preservation is a healthy instinct. But fear also motivates people like Howard Hughes to lock themselves up in their room for years at a time and not come out because of a nameless unspoken dread which is not pinned to any real threat. In this case, we can all likewise agree that fear is unhealthy.

The question that should arise therefore in any discussion of fear is not whether fear is good or bad, but whether the threat behind the fear is real or unreal. If we can make that one simple adjustment in our approach to fear, then perhaps we can have a civil debate about our future as a nation and a culture.

For one thing, it would do away with such witticisms as this:

"When all else fails, start fear mongering." -Think Progress blog.

"When it comes to scaring the American people, the Bush administration is in a league of its own - the fear-mongering equivalent of the 1927 New York Yankees, the Steel Curtain Pittsburgh Steelers, or the Showtime era Lakers of Magic, Kareem, and James Worthy. Everywhere you turn, there is another Alarmist All-Star." -Arianna Huffington blog.

"Reject fear - dump Bush." -Bumper sticker.

The implied argument of all such polemic is that "fear is bad," and we have already established that no one can make such a claim and hope to be taken seriously as a proponent of logic and reason.

Indeed, fear cannot be rejected anymore than death can. They are facts of life - somewhat unpleasant, but undeniable. The value of such arguments as "Reject fear" can best be exemplified by substituting another unpleasant fact of life in the slogan, and seeing how effective it is. Let's try this one: "Reject beheading - dump al-Qaida." It's got a nice ring to it, but the problem is that it doesn't make beheading go away. So, in this case, "Rejecting beheading" simply means denying reality.

In the case of "Reject fear," it means denying ourselves the ability to rationally look at a threat and determine whether it is a valid danger or an imaginary one. Fear is not the enemy; it is instead a reaction to an enemy, whether real or perceived. What we must do, therefore, is look at the enemy and determine how dangerous it really is.

For the Bush administration, the enemy is worldwide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. The evidence that it is real, pervasive, persistent and deadly is overwhelming. Before Sept. 11, 2001, however, that evidence was largely being ignored. Both President Clinton and President Bush "rejected fear," and that is what empowered our enemy to hit us hard. After Sept. 11, President Bush said we would never make the same mistake again, and that we would increase our vigilance and determination and would take seriously the threats of terrorists like Osama bin Laden.

Most people would agree that ramping up the fear after such an attack was a good idea because it would make us safer. So, this is another subtlety of fear which is ignored by the liberals who misinterpret Roosevelt's dictum that "All we have to fear is fear itself." Fear can either leave us paralyzed or it can energize us to take action. Roosevelt believed in taking bold action and getting things done. Fortunately, that was the course we as a nation took after 9/11. We went on the offensive against terrorism and determined to make ourselves safer.

But even that cannot be accepted by some. As you no doubt realize, many Americans are more afraid of their government than anything else. They believe that President Bush and his minions engineered the attacks on the World Trade Center and other U.S. facilities in order to begin their nefarious takeover of the United States. To these folks, "Big Brother is already in the building," and George W. Bush is the big bad wolf who huffed and puffed and blew our Constitution down.

This theory, however, is not considered to be fear-mongering by its proponents. Instead, they think they are saving the country from Bush and his bogeymen. One of the main advocates of this theory is radio host Alex Jones, who makes a living off of accusing the U.S. government of complicity in a variety of crimes. But if you listen to him carefully between his rants against the government's alleged mind-control experiments, super secret surveillance of you and me, and black ops by the Bushies including blowing up the Pentagon, you will hear him tell his listeners in all seriousness, "Just say no to fear."

If you do not see the irony of this statement, then all hope is lost.

The problem is that we do live in an age of fear. You can't "say no" to fear without putting your head in the sand. There is plenty to be afraid of, inside government and out of it. I am afraid of President Bush's apparent intention to promote a North American Union that would join the United States with Canada and Mexico in a de facto superstate. I am afraid of the crush of illegal immigrants to our country who will forever change the values and culture of our nation. I am afraid of an asteroid blinking out 99 percent of human life on the planet when it hits our pebble in the sky sometime in the next 10,000 years.

Yes, there is plenty to be afraid of. I admit I am even afraid of terrorists launching a strike against our country that will leave millions dead when a nuclear bomb is exploded. Heck, I was even afraid of that before the head of al-Qaida in Iraq sent out a global recruitment message last week for nuclear engineers to join the jihad against the United States and the other "Western dogs."

But what I am not afraid of is being afraid. The only damn fool in a foxhole who isn't afraid is the damn fool. Like it or not, we live in a foxhole. Courage is not the absence of fear; it is action in the face of fear. And combined with determination and the instinct for self-preservation, fear will help us to fight our way out.

Or we could just keep our heads down, smile the blissful smile of the ill-informed, and hope like hell we keep our heads attached when the jihadists launch the next wave of attacks.