In 1933, President Roosevelt announced to a weary country, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves, which is essential to victory.”
Today, Americans live with a more profound fear than the fear of economic collapse, which gripped our country at the height of the Great Depression. To be sure, many Americans fear the loss of their job, they fear foreclosure, and for some, the fear of bankruptcy is at their door.
However, Americans also fear the loss of our nation’s pre-eminence in world politics. They fear the depletion of our natural resources, the diminution of American families; they fear for the safety of the planet. Americans fear terrorism, man-made and natural disasters; they fear widespread violence and lawlessness, and a few fear the complete break down of society.
Recent history would lend support to the prevalence of distrust and suspicion among our people. The past decade has not been kind to us, and with the inability of the nation’s power to achieve a clear cut victory anywhere; we might feel as though we are cursed.
Evilness has put on many faces over the past years. We see the face of evilness in the swindlers and cheats who bilked billions of dollars from hard-working Americans. We see its face on the corporate executives who continually get huge bonus packages and we see it on the employers who skirt the law in many ways in order to make a short termed profit. Moreover, to be honest, we can see the effects of evil’s cousin, greed, in the abandoned housing developments and empty Mc-Mansions found in our conflicted suburbs. We see another of evil’s relatives, ignorance, by the actions of misinformed government officials who thwart the will of the people.
We fear illness, old age, death, invasion of privacy, and home invasions.
To the ramparts have fled thousands of angst-ridden Americans- reactionary politicians, lobbying groups, celebrities, and private militias- fearful of what the future may hold. While admirable in some ways, the political rhetoric that emanates from this group has taken on a meanness and perversely unlawful tenor. Common sense and reason are not to be found in the stadiums. People have resorted to stock-piling and using weapons as a means of patriotism and self-expression.
In 1970, Walt Kelly, the creator of the comic strip “Pogo” coined the expression, “We have met the enemy, and he is us,” in reference to the big businesses which trampled over the small, the weak, and the powerless.
In 1893, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Fear always springs from ignorance.” As Christians, we are implored to seek reason, fairness, and common sense in all of our affairs.
In the end, the only thing we may have to fear is ourselves.
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