Nov 26, 2015

Fear (1)

“The only thing we have to fear

is fear itself”

         Franklin Delano Roosevelt

                                        First Inaugural Address

 

Fear Corrupts

These prophetic words are once again in need of being spoken. The news is filled with solemn faced men (and a few women) proclaiming long and loud “The end is near! The end is near! Run and hide, for all will be found and killed! You are not safe anywhere!” That is the message that is played out, as time and again they show the horrors and din of suicide bombers and gunmen, detailing over and over a few minutes of horror, until it seems like it will never end. and a few mad individuals who have frozen humanity into paralysis have won the battle.

A whole political party is marching to that drum of fear. And who knows, they may win, for all of the media follows that same drum, for it seems like the old adage of “fear sells” is still true. And if they win, then America loses, for we will no longer be “The land of the Brave and the home of the Free”, but a nation of “Wimps and Weaklings”, letting our imaginings overpower the truth of what is our world, cowering behind isolation and fear, and the mad men of the planet will have won, and a relative handful when put against 7.5 billion on the earth will have conquered all.

Everybody loses

That is how all dictators have won. That is how Hitler maintained control in Germany after his initial victory at the polls. He spread fears and power, killing a few who stood up to him, and letting his storm troopers dictate the soul of the nation. In our case, it is the media that is the ‘storm troopers’ of fear, relishing the role of spreading fear to all, pounding it in our heads because we cannot stop watching.

Unless we do stop watching, and refuse to join in the mad braying of the press and politicians of our nation.

“Power does not corrupt.

Fear corrupts.”

                     John Steinbeck

Fear is the most corrupting emotion we can have. Fear is the absence of Love, the avoidance of our most powerful influence that makes the human soul free to be. Fear corrupts all that we hold dear in our hearts, binds us as slaves to the will of others, makes us powerless over life. Fear immobilizes us, and those that pray upon the fears of others are the most corrupt individuals on earth, for they use fear as a club to gain power and control over others lives.

Those who express fear by isolating us from the world are doing precisely what those who perpetrated those events want. Killing a few individuals can in no way conquer a nation, but the fear and isolation generated removes all boundaries and effectively holds that nation in captivity.

“If you want to control someone,

all you have to do is

make them feel afraid.”

                 Paulo Coelho

Questions to Ponder

How much fear did the events of the past few weeks generate in your own life?

Did you find yourself dwelling on the fear or on compassion for those suffering?

Meditation

My Beloved, open my heart in Love for all the suffering in the world who are the victims of our wars on one another. It seems like the world is full of pain and suffering, we do our best to sweep it under the rug so that we do not have to face our inadequacies. You give us a choice, You always give us a choice: Live in Love, or Live in Fear. I am asking You to further open my heart to Love, Your very Life and Being, so that I may be an open font of Your Love into our world that is so desperate to feel that Love.