I would argue that fear is the most destructive human emotion. The power of fear is staggering. Someone in the vice grip of fear loses all reasoning ability, reverting to an animal state of emotional reaction. It has the power to compel someone to make the most irrational of decisions, decisions that can have devastating long-term consequences. Our leaders are making fear-based decisions, the media is pumping out a continuous stream of fear-inducing headlines, and the rest of us are attempting to navigate this new reality with as much cool-headedness as we can muster. For the most part, everyone I’ve encountered has not been ensnared in the fear that the media and government so desperately wish us to be caught up in. Everyone is fairly calm, although I do see plenty of face masks. They are trying their best to take the advice of their government, practice “social distancing”, and stay at home. Their businesses shuttered or operations curtailed, they are attempting to be good citizens, and are placing their trust in what their government is telling them. But it can only go on for so long. Fear is on the horizon, real fear, but not of a virus. It’s the fear of economic insecurity, the fear that they won’t receive a paycheck, or rather one much smaller than they are used to. Fear has led to a domino-collapse of economic activity. Economic activity is lives and livelihoods. A ceasing of economic activity will instill a level of fear that no virus ever could.
We are told that this is a war against a virus, and the language now being used mirrors the language used to prosecute the “War on Terror”. But the real war is against our fear. This fear that we now feel is giving our own government free reign to impose martial law. To find our way out of this rapidly deteriorating situation, we must refuse to give in to the fear that we are being force-fed. If unemployment hits 30% in this country, no one will give a damn about a seasonal respiratory infection. They will be too focused on finding work, and feeding their family. What we are witnessing is the power of fear, and it’s ability to rapidly lay the foundation for authoritarianism and destruction.
If our species experiences a true apocalypse, it’s cause won’t be some disease or other natural disaster. It will be self-inflicted. We are our own worst enemies.
