What are people afraid of?

Lois M. Scheel

1993

Published in:

Northwest Technocrat Newsletter, Nov/Dec 1993, No. 119

What else but fear accounts for almost all negative actions carried out by the human race?

We allow aliens to immigrate to this country on the alleged excuse they are politically persecuted and therefore need asylum, which allows them to be called refugees: "those refugees are afraid because they have no security intheir own country, so they seek asylum in America, or some other country, hoping to find that elusive security guarantee.

Although America needs her fast-declining resources for her own citizens, she takes in these refugees because she is afraid not to; she must save face. And what president would risk losing votes because he refused to let oppressed people into this land of once golden opportunity? After all, hasn't America been noted for taking in both aliens and refugees:

``Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!''

There was a time when these immigrants were needed in the work force. They provided cheap labor, but no longer are there enough jobs to offer, not even to our own citizens. Is our vaunted Statue of Liberty at the entrance to New York Bay becoming a travesty of all it once stood for? How about taking care of our own "homeless, tempest-tost"!

And how did the gunman who recently shot and killed a member of the CIA in Washington, D.C. qualify as a political asylum applicant? And nobody knows how the World Trade Center suspect and his spiritual leader slipped throughcustoms illegally. Our own brands of terrorism carried out in foreign lands because of our fear of running out of oil seems to have brought foreign terrorism home where we can see the devastation first hand. Now we really have something to be afraid of.

Overpopulation is one of the most touchy and serious problems facing America today--in fact facing the world--, and an influx of aliens and refugees only adds to this tense situation. Putting welfare people to work at minimum wage instead of providing them with income security is an insult to their sensibilities. How can most families live on minimum wage? As one fellow, who had been busted for dealing in drugs, so succinctly put it: "Why should I work at McDonald's for minimum wage when I can make $1000 or more a night dealing in drugs?" Does this system deserve the criminals it creates? And are these criminals any more criminal than a social system that pays its politicians well, partly with tax dollars from the working poor, while most of its citizens live in fear of winding up with no security at all?

Out of this fear, America has become an armed camp with more homicides each year than any other industrialized country. Years ago people were fortunate if they lived to a ripe old age with their health intact. Now they are lucky if they live to a ripe old age without getting shot.

Schools are installing metal detectors, not just high schools, but elementary schools as well. In some areas teachers take their lives in their hands merely by practicing their profession. They are afraid they will be shot by a student who is afraid he will fail, or for some other reason just as simple. Or one student may shoot another student over a silly misunderstanding or jealousy or fear of peer pressure.

Suicides strike all ages. The elderly take their lives because they are afraid to live to the end, afraid of being mugged, afraid of losing their life's savings to insecure times or to the insatiable financial appetite of themedical profession. Joblessness often creates severe mental depression that some ex- workers cannot cope with. Many young people feel they can no longer tolerate a society that does not provide a future for them. Fear controls the masses. Fear of an unforgiving God. Fear of losing property. Fear of not enough to eat. Fear of increased taxes. Fear of an invasion by foreign enemies, a scare trumped up by politicians and the military to keep their war games going because they fear losing their lucrative profit or their control of foreign oil.

Crime is a byproduct of fear. Supposedly decent persons will lie to an insurance company over a car accident, or falsely testify or even produce a false witness because they are afraid their rates will go up. And insurance companies are afraid that pursuing cheaters over small sums will be more expensive that just paying them off, which hurts the innocent. Fear creates a cycle of mistrust in which no one is immune from suspicion.

Thousands of American citizens have come to fear doctors and hospitals which leaves medical and pharmaceutical companies running scared. Demand for their services has declined as people seek relief with vitamins and natural healing alternatives So now there is a legislative bill waiting to be signed to force citizens to purchase their vitamins from pharmacies. The humanitarianreason? It is feared these citizens won't take the correct amount of vitamins and may injure their health.

One of the biggest and most comprehensive investigations of medical malpractice ever undertaken by a team of doctors, lawyers and analysts (at Harvard University) concluded that 150,000 Americans are killed annually by medicaltreatment with more than half of those deaths due to negligence. "Medical injury accounts for more than all other types of accidents combined and dwarfs the mortality rates associated with motor vehicle accidents (50,000 per year) and occupation-related mishaps (6,000 per year)," the researchers said (Newhouse News Service, May, 1993). No wonder American citizens are beginning to fear their doctors and their prescription-administered drugs.

Most news media sources, except radical and underground publications, must dish out what their sponsors want or chance losing their advertising, which helps keep them afloat. So this fear of the truth breeds more distrust as that rational part of the public, those who take time out to think occasionally, begins to realize they are being misled daily by their daily news media.

Timber companies have clear-cut themselves and their workers out of jobs in their fear of soon being cut off from taking too much timber. Everyone likes to eat; it is alleged that some forest fires are started by arsonists tokeep fire fighters in business and to give salvage jobs to timber companies, which in turn has created a new surge in the "water wagon" enterprise.

"During the lightening-induced fires of 1987, there weren't enough water trucks in Trinity County. So all of a sudden 40 or 50 men took out big loans and got themselves water tenders costing anywhere from $15,000 to $40,000. The trucks sit idle most of the time. But during last summer's Barker and Fountain fires, the state paid $1,375 a day per truck and two drivers. The president of the Hayfork Chamber of Commerce, a millworker, said that hegrossed $14,695 in eight days on the Barker Fire. In all likelihood, a lot of truck owners paid off heavy loans around that time. The extensive research for cause by the California Department of Forestry and Fires Prevention concluded that not only was the Barker fire arson, but also it had been set to create employment in recession-hit Hayfork, California." (Mike Weiss, writing for Mother Jones magazine, Mar/Apr issue, 1993.)

Who starts these fires? Of course no one will own up to them. What is amazing is that seldom are these arsonists caught, which makes one wonder just how far-reaching the jobs go that are created by starting fires.

And not the least of our fears is the fear we must face while living in our own homes or walking on the sidewalk, not just at night but in broad daylight also. There was a time when we didn't always lock our doors. Not any more. Some residents whose houses are located in once respectable, safe neighborhoods now bar both their windows and doors and install burglar alarms as well.

We practice caution when we answer our phones so no one will know we are home alone. We make sure that our answering-service message makes it appear that we are home but just can't come to the phone right now. Our children are in danger of being kidnapped or violated, a fear that is on our minds the minute we let them out the door and remains with us until they return.

The late newspaper columnist, Sydney Harris, once wrote: "Crime starts at the top and filters on down through the masses." The Mafia is alleged to have got its start when the people reached their limit of tolerance after being oppressed by a system that treated them like serfs.

Entire civilizations have disappeared when the wealth became concentrated in the hands of a few and the military grew too powerful. According to Dr. R. E. Search, less than two percent of the people control ninety percent of the wealth of America today. (His views on the strength of our military are not available, but we can judge that for ourselves.)

If we would scrap the price tag on all goods and services and balance our production and distribution with energy accounting, a system of measurement that would utilize our resources for the benefit of all, a sense of security could replace most fears practically overnight. Why hasn't such a system been installed before this when its design has been available for over 60 years? Because those at thetop fear losing their power. Others fear that with a balanced work load to offset the new slaves (machines), which such a system would require, some wouldn't carry their fair share. And what about our cars? There wouldn't be a problem with losing them to theft any more, but then we might not be able to drive the flashiest on the block, never mind it would be the most energy efficient. And would we have as nice a house as our neighbor? And what if we lost our diversity in culture. Oh the fear of it all.

According to Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Maybe so, but tunnel vision is a pretty fearsome affliction and what is even more scary, it is catching.