Have you noticed lately that so many more people seem to be more afraid now than 20 years ago? Your friends and family are constantly warning you against “life” and when you ask them where they got that idea from it will generally be the news. I myself don’t watch TV and I suggested that they did not either. My fear factor has not changed one bit since my teens. This week in two different journals I found the answer to why fear is on the increase.
In the Fall 2008 issue of The Berkeley-based literary magazine Threepenny Review http://www.threepennyreview.com/current.html they published the proceedings of a symposium they held on the subjedt of fear. A portion was reprinted in the Utne Reader magazine www.Utne.com. In a nutshell it said that the “example rule,” dictates that the easier it is to gin up a memory of something, the more likely it is to be a repeat threat. This worked well before the advent of TV but now we are being bombarded constantly with pictures of plane crashes, superbugs, and child abductions; faced with related decisions, our guts are now make the decidedly wrong decisions. Utne printed three favorite moments from the symposium and I have reduced it to one because each time I read it, it makes me smile and that is what I like to do.
“If I’m tempted to boast that I have no fear that is not because I am fearless by nature, more that I have almost never found myself in situations in which I have had any need of fear…I’ve had no experience of loss. My parents are both in the 80s and still going strong. Also, since I don’t have – and never want to have – any children, I am not prey to the parental terror that they will be snatched any (by pedophiles, illness, or accident) without warning. …So there’s been no grief in my life, only a massive amount of irritation, and I suspect there is a relation between this and living without fear. To put it simply, I’ve just been too childishly pissed off, frustrated, and enraged to feel fear.”
Geoff Dyer, British author of But Beautiful, among other books.
The other article was in the Ode Magazine blog “Avoid Mental Toxins for 2009“
http://www.odemagazine.com/exchange/4208/avoid_mental_toxins_for_2009
In the same vein as Utne Reader they say that “Sadly, the news and media these days are flooding the airwaves with negative, anxiety and fear-producing stories. While it is important to know what is happening, I would strongly suggest being careful about taking in too much of that fear and negativity. It can be bad for your health.”
Hear! Hear! Do something positive in the New Year, skip television and volunteer at a shelter (human or animal), work with kids, help the environment, work at your church, or just meditate. Remember it is important to be in sync with the Rhythm of Life. Happy New Year
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