Fear. I’ve noticed an
interesting paradox in America since 9/11: we are a society full of rampant
fear, and the fervent belief that it shouldn’t exist. There is a deeply held sense—not really a
belief put into thoughts or words, but a feeling or an intuition—in today’s
America that we are entitled to a
life without fear. Maybe we are; I don’t
know, maybe that’s the right way to live.
I grew up at the end of the Cold War next to first a Strategic Bomber
base, then next to an ICBM silo a quarter mile up the road, and then a Naval
Air Station, now I live at the bottom of NORAD.
I’ve lived at Ground Zero my whole life.
Generation X was the last generation to grow-up in that situation. The Baby Boomers stared down oblivion as kids
during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The
Greatest Generation and the Civil Generation before fought two world wars and
in between suffered the worst economic disaster to occur in the Industrial Age,
plus famine, a pandemic and the Dust Bowl.
Fear was a constant in their lives.
I believe every generation prior to the twentieth century had even
greater fears to accompany them in daily life.
For some reason, in the twenty-first century, we believe we should be
immune to a life of fear.
Where did we get this impression that it is unfair for us to be afraid? It’s a belief that “danger shouldn’t exist.” But when has that ever been the case? I have a suspicion that after 9/11, two
things happened: first, our political leaders told us “refuse to be terrified,”
which did not make people brave, it made them, secondly, delusional. They constructed the “bubble” I often write
about, an illusionary safe space of
denial about the nature of the world. It is a willful refusal to accept the truth about the dangers in the world. Further, it is an adamant belief that they
are safe, because they are entitled
to be safe. We should be safe!
They’re right; we should
be entitled to be safe. But our prisons
are full of evil people who did not adhere to our perceptions of how the world “should” operate. Our emergency rooms and morgues are full of
innocent people who were victimized by these evil people, because they were
powerless to stop them. They were
powerless to stop them because they were unprepared. They were unprepared because—often—they refused
to admit the world is a dangerous place, they refused to admit their
vulnerability, they refused to accept personal responsibility for their own
safety, they foolishly expected somebody else to protect them, and they refused
to pop their own bubble, so somebody else did, and blood spilled out of it.
The solution to fear is not the denial of danger or the delusional perception of constant safety. The
solution to terror is not ignoring it, its sources or its methods. The solution to evil is not appeasement. The solution to all of these problems is the
same thing: courage. You should be
entitled to safety, but you aren’t.
Every victim of violent crime wonders how it could happen to them, or
why it happened in a world where it shouldn’t.
There is an answer to those questions, but it’s irrelevant. Because, it did happen, it does happen, it is
happening somewhere in our society right
now. Pretending it isn’t true does
not stop it. Making new laws does not deter
violent criminals, because they are criminals. Words on a page do not stop an evil person
from being evil towards an innocent victim.
So, maybe we should live in a world without fear. Maybe that’s how the universe, or a higher
power, intended for humans to live; but as long as we are mortal, there will be
evil people willing to pray upon that mortality to extract power, wealth,
privilege or twisted gratification from victims. So, it doesn’t matter how the world should operate; it only matters how it does operate. And in the real world, outside the
illusionary bubble, evil people do evil things to innocent people. The only things that effectively stop them
are bullets. Stop denying the fear; be
afraid, and use the fear as motivation in your preparation to never be a victim. Whether life should be fearless or not, it isn’t, so instead you have to be courageous!
Courage is not the absence of fear; it is doing what’s necessary
despite the fear. Maybe you win, maybe you lose, but you are NOT a helpless victim.
“It’s better to be dead and cool, than alive and uncool!” –Harley
Davidson and the Marlboro Man
Be Brave!
Soule
Easy 6 Training
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