Opinion: The danger of fear; Those in power can use it to access power and divide us
We have frequently heard President Roosevelt’s statement: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He stated this as he started to lead the country in overcoming the Great Depression that had descended on the nation. We are learning how true Roosevelt was. Today, we do not have a depression as large as the Great Depression to fear, but there are many who stoke fear in order to gain power.
Fear for the future of the country is constantly repeated by Presidential candidate Trump and his supporters. Psychologists even associate fear of the future with people of a conservative outlook and to their brains themselves. The “negative bias” associated with fear is a major cause for violence, the Jan. 6 insurrection and other acts of violence being prime examples.
From its founding, America has been in a process of change that causes fear among parts of the population. The South opposed demolishing the slave system, because it feared doing away with the system would be to its economic disadvantage and diminish its power and influence. This led to the Civil War and the years of attempts by fearful Southern whites to prevent the rise in influence of the non-white population. The Southern white population legalized racial segregation, carried out lynchings, and denied voting rights to blacks. The violence associated with the Selma March spurred passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The violence specifically reflected the fear of the white population toward non-whites gaining the right to vote. Passage of the Voting Rights Act caused a major shift of people in the South from the Democratic to the Republican party.
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Fear of loss of wealth has been a great part of the fear of change. Slavery itself was a large source for wealth. However, in the post-Civil War era, America participated in the Industrial Revolution that brought great wealth disparity. Over major opposition, the government, starting with Republican Teddy Roosevelt and continuing primarily through Democratic administrations has been able to enact policies that were helpful in creating a large middle class and in leveling wealth in the nation to some degree. Now great disparities of wealth have returned. There is still much to do to make our most diverse nation in the world a more just nation. This is seen in the areas of adequate food, housing, education and child care. Access to health care was improved under President Obama, but continues to need improvement to match the health care systems in other industrialized nations, such as Taiwan where I once lived.
Based on its diverse population, America has a diverse and rich culture. Most other nations in the world have single major ethnic majorities. The large Euro-American population in America arrived over centuries, many escaping oppressive conditions, but so did other population groups. The large Afro-American population was brought to America against their will and the indigenous people in America were conquered. Nevertheless, America is deliberately based on a belief in the equality of all people. Most of the population change, before and especially since the Civil War, developed on the basis of desire for a better life plus American ideals, which attract many oppressed peoples. Some of the diverse groups in our population have been in America the longest, examples being the indigenous people and African Americans.
The challenge for Americans is not to fear the future or to follow those who use fear to gain support and access to power. America is an experiment based on ideas, foremost being that all people are created equal. Yet our history has been a long struggle to live up to this ideal, as our prophets have pointed out, a major example being Martin Luther King Jr.
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A current prophet is Bishop Barber of North Carolina, who speaks especially on behalf of poor people and their many needs. Too many in our country fear that helping others in need will somehow diminish their own wealth when in fact, helping others to thrive is beneficial to all of our nation. For those who value the Bible, like me, read Psalm 82 and I believe you will come away with a strong sense of responsibility to establish “liberty and justice for all,” especially for the most vulnerable. As Americans we all have a responsibility to help our nation live up to the ideals of our Founders and strengthen our complex democracy. That is the best way to deal with fear of the future.
Rev. Robert L. Montgomery Ph.D., lives in Black Mountain.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Those in power can use fear to access power and divide us
