FEAR

I suppose one of the most often repeated political utterances is that of Franklyn Roosevelt, who said in his first inaugural address during the great depression, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” What a perceptive statement that is. Of all human emotions, I guess nothing is more paralysing than fear, particularly its more extreme brother, terror.

Many is the tyrant who has blatantly used the weapon of terror, in the form of torture, in order to impose his will upon unwilling people. During the Second World War, Hitler’s blitzkrieg was meant to terrorise the British people into surrender. Today terrorism has become the chosen weapon of all extremists, whose political and religious philosophy and arguments are so unconvincing, few if any are willing to give them credence. The final part of that sentence contains the clue to why terror has become the weapon of choice of these wicked and unscrupulous people. Most people have the good sense to ignore the crazy utterances of these extremists, so they set about making everyone sit up and take notice in other ways. What better than to take advantage of television’s myopic love affair with violence? Any act of violence, the more extreme the better, is guaranteed to be headlines in all the world’s TV stations. As if the violence itself and its effect on the people involved, is not bad enough, TV broadcasters must needs repeat and analyse each act of terror endlessly until people are in danger of becoming inured to violence completely.

I know the arguments used by the media that they are only reporting what happened and they refuse to countenance the fact that undoubtedly they are being blatantly manipulated by terrorists to extend the effect of the terror as widely as possible. If we could find a way to isolate these unscrupulous terrorists from publicity, without which they would cease to recruit followers and or financial backing, we would be doing the cause of ordinary, law abiding people the greatest possible service. If one tenth of the money and effort was put into achieving this aim as is put into reporting each act of terror in lurid detail, a solution would soon be found. This is only one part of the problem however.

Terrorist organisations can only exist where there is a strong feeling of injustice among people at being unable to counteract the actions of others vis a vis their country, religion, philosophy, etc, etc. Of course the terrorist organisations exaggerate the injustice for their own ends but without its existence in the first place there would be nothing to work on. For such conditions to be created, someone or some country must, for its own selfish reasons, have taken action that has created the sense of injustice. It is an unfortunate fact that usually when action is taken that exploits the weakness or defencelessness of another person or people, the aggressors never analyse all the implications of their actions in advance. They only closely examine the immediate impact on themselves and how likely they will be to achieve their main objective, which takes no account of its impact upon others.

Much of the action taken against other countries in the last twenty years unfortunately has its basis in the developed world’s unquenchable thirst for oil.


If we accept this argument, it follows that at least some of the origins of international terrorism are centred on the fact that those of us whose political masters are inclined to take aggressive action have been unwilling or unable to do anything to prevent it. It is a perfect illustration of the working out in practice of John Donne’s claim that “no man is an island, entire unto himself.” It is impossible for any action to be taken in isolation. Everything we do, say or think, as individuals or nations, has an impact upon the rest of humanity.

Vested interest is often behind international action and once again, as I have pointed out in other blogs, the lust for power and money is the trigger. Power is an alluring goddess. She trails the prospect of the enormous benefit power can be to further the betterment of your fellow human beings. She blinds you to the subtle ways in which power corrupts its wielder. Lord Acton in 1887 described this brilliantly: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." No-one has bettered this definition of the dangers inherent in power. It follows therefore that we in democracies should be extremely careful about the power we cede to our rulers. We should also recognise the dangers inherent in secrecy. Those wishing to cause trouble in order to further their own vested interest, never work in the open. Like the housebreaker, they prefer to work in the dark. Controlling such activity has become increasingly difficult with the advent of multi-national companies but we must accept the challenge it poses or things can only get worse.

Returning to our opening theme, how do we protect ourselves from the debilitating effects of fear? By returning to basics. The deepest fear that besets human beings is the fear of death. No loss is considered more terrible than the loss of one’s physical life. Yet, whilst understandable in view of the way modern humanity has developed philosophically and politically, how foolish it is in the light of the knowledge that our real life is of the spirit. Not one of us can ever die as an individual with our own distinct personality and consciousness. We are eternal and indeed some claim that we even return to Earth many times. By accepting this reality as the basis of our lives; by recognising our interdependence upon one another; by accepting that every selfish act and every abuse of power diminishes the whole of humanity; by putting our own individual house in order before criticising the shortcomings of others; by trying harder to follow the Biblical advice, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you,” we could transform the world.

Such advice is not easy to follow but if we at least try harder each day to love even those we do not like, we could find it becomes a habit and just think of the benefits that could flow from that!