Fear is the most powerful weapon known to man. Tyrants have used fear to control populations since the dawn of time. It is an effective, cheap, contagious weapon which short-circuits the rational part of our minds. Franklin Delano Roosevelt told us in 1933 that, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and goes on to say, “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
Fear has been with us from the start. Kings used public torture and execution to instill fear in the hearts of their subjects to control them. Genghis Khan slaughtered entire cities in his conquests to terrorize future adversaries into giving up without a fight.
Understand this about your Republican family members, friends and neighbors: they have been subjected to a concentrated propaganda campaign to make them fearful for decades. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Fox News injected poisonous fear into America’s bloodstream in the 1990s. The internet magnified this fear a thousand-fold. Do you remember how crazy they all sounded a decade ago when they worried about FEMA camps and the end of democracy in America? That was the result of making people fearful. Do not hate your family, friends and neighbors: show them kindness so that their fear may melt away.
Fear is also responsible for the strange behavior in Congress the last couple of years. Sexually or financially compromised individuals do enormous amounts of systemic damage because they fear the consequences of their actions if exposed. I know I am a tiny minority in writing this, but I believe they should be offered forgiveness if they repent, because it will take away the fear motivating them. This is the reason forgiveness is the essential message of Christ even though it isn’t put into practice by most modern day Christians.
Make no mistake, you will be assaulted with fear on the internet in the coming years. If you combine AI and your data with propaganda campaigns run by Russia against Ukraine, ISIS against everyone or drug cartels against each other, you can expect them to be personally targeted against you and terrifying. Resist the fear and do not act on it because you will only spread it like a disease, which is the entire point.
I lost respect for a friend of mine of social media last night who mused that if Republicans cheat the election it is time to move to France. There is no point in moving. France, or Canada for that matter, will not welcome in thousands of America refugees and, because fear spreads, they would likely fall next anyway, and then you are the immigrant. For better or for worse, we are all here.
The only thing we can do is vote. Do not echo or succumb to calls for violence because that will only spread the contagion and all the vets out there can attest to the horrors unleashed on societies when it gets out of control.
I realize many of you reading this do not believe in God but my belief gives me great solace. The first verse of Psalm 27 comforts my heart – The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
Do not fear. Believe.
Wes Clark Jr. 