What brand of fear are you buying?

Here’s a hot investing tip. If I were to invest in anything this year, I’d invest in selling fear.

Fear is a commodity and it seems like everyone is buying, and there is always a brand that is right for you, custom made to fit all your insecurities and doubts.

Before I lose you, let me tell you why this is so important to me. I wanted to write this after seeing people I know, respect, and love showing me that they firmly believe in things that, taken with just the minor dose of nonpartisan reason, could be seen as patently false, or at least highly unlikely. (So much wrong with that statement, I’ll address it.)

Why? How? How could you possibly believe this thing that sounds so ridiculous. How do intelligent people learn to believe something so incredibly crazy. I’m watching these false beliefs, both mine and others, create differences in our beliefs that tear apart families, friendships, and our nation. I’m watching people form into tribes, and those tribes are going to war. I can’t stand by anymore. So, I had to take a hard look at myself to find the answer.

“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.” — Frank Herbert, Dune

Fear is the nonpartisan, nondenominational denomination. Everywhere I look lately, I see fear. It shows in our tweets, and in our discussions, both online and off. It’s on our tv’s, phones, computers. It shines from our screens in our homes, cars, stores, and everywhere where we aren’t forced to turn off our devices. I hate it, I want to cure it, and I think we can.

It shouldn’t surprise you that the answer is fear. We buy it wholesale at the local media store, we consume it constantly. We know there is an epidemic of overeating, but our consumption of fear is killing us much more quickly. It enters our hearts and we don’t deal with it. We internalize it.

We don’t deal with it. We run instead to the safety of the group. We religiously spout the sayings of the group so that we may conform to it. We recite our catechisms of fear and in our cocoon of belonging we see ourselves as safe from the other. We dare not stand outside the group, outside of safety.

We all want to believe that we are good people. If we are good, then the things we believe must be good. If we are good, we can only hate bad people, right? So the people we dislike must be bad people. The people we hate, fear, loath, those must be bad people, because we are “good people.”

We fear, deep down, that we might be wrong. And if we are wrong and those people are good, what does that say about us? Are we still good? Is there something wrong with us? No, there can’t be. So we pile fear on top of fear to justify our belief system. We gaslight ourselves (I hate that phrase) so that our world doesn’t collapse in like a house of cards.

We are all this way. It doesn’t matter what political party, or religion, or culture, we all build a world interpreted by our minds. We build prisons of our minds, we pad them beautifully, and we tell ourselves that the walls we build keep us safe. And sometimes they do. But if the walls are built of fear to support more fear to support hate which breeds fear, that kind of prison will kill us.

It would be nice to say that the cure is to be open minded, but it isn’t. Some of the most closed minded people I’ve ever met consider themselves to be open minded, free thinking individuals. They often even excel in their chosen fields. Their status and success allow them to believe that they must be right. No, open mindedness is not the answer. Open mindedness, wokeness, and free thinking, right thinking are code words for being part of the group which holds the correct set of beliefs. It’s just another tribe.

So, what is the answer? How do we overcome fear?

Humility. Understanding that we might be wrong. Understanding that we don’t have all the data, that we may be missing entire data sets. That our point of view isn’t enough. That our group may be wrong. That our minds might be ill with the poison of stagnation.

Courage. We have to be willing to stand outside of the safety of our “ism.” We must be willing to bear the arrows that come from standing between or outside of warring factions. The mob is never safe, because the mob starts fights. Being alone isn’t safe, it isn’t fun, but the thing we most truly desire is on the other side of fear.

Action. We must act according to our beliefs and carefully view the consequences. “By their fruits, ye shall know them.” We’d like to think that this is a condemnation of evil fruit, but most of us commit the grievous sin of bearing no fruit. Our chosen state of being barren is just as telling as if our fruit were to be evil. We must be willing to be wrong, and to see it, and to correct it.

Stop buying fear. Stop consuming it. What you consume is what you become. This world doesn’t need more fear. So, no, I won’t be investing in fear this year. I’m investing in courage, I see some in you.

Remember, YOU are the masterpiece.