• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. civil discourse>

How afraid are we?

Debilyn Molineaux
https://www.facebook.com/debilynm/
https://twitter.com/debilynm?lang=en
https://www.instagram.com/debilynmolineaux/
June 22, 2022
Woman saying a prayer
kieferpix/Getty Images

Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

Fear is a fascinating emotion. It is absolutely essential to our survival as a species. And it could also cause the end of civil society, as we know it.

I find there is also a split in my thinking about fear. First, there is understanding and acceptance that we will believe we must initially react with survival instincts. I also believe we can feel that survival fear and face our situation with courage and rational thinking.

We have many threats, real and perceived, that could keep us in the instinctual, non-rational action mode. We should decline to do so.

As a society, it is my belief that we have evolved past the need to be survival-ready 24/7. Yes, we still need to learn personal safety protocols, especially for people who are more likely to come under attack (women, people of color, LGBTQ+), but survival concerns needn’t be included in our every thought, every moment of every day.


Our modern society has allowed this, largely through formal and informal societal agreements about how we handle conflict. We’ve moved on from the “eye for an eye” justice that was written about in ancient religious texts. Our new social contract is based on the Constitution and subsequent laws that address how we handle conflict.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

While the Constitution has served as the bedrock for handling conflict in the United States for over 200 years, some Americans today feel they are exempt from our founding document. Why is this? As a nation, we are angry and underneath our anger is fear.

  • Fear that we will lose our place in the social order.
  • Fear that we will become subservient to others.
  • Fear that our descendants, our children, will struggle.
  • Fear that our way of life will end.

And yes, if our nation continues to evolve towards the vision the founders laid out – that people are all “created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” – change will happen. Regardless, our children may struggle. Our way of life may be changed. Our social hierarchy may be re-ordered. Subservience to others? I hope not. We should all have agency over our own lives as equally valuable humans. That is the vision we were promised.

How afraid are we of these things? And where might we find courage to create a better future instead of holding on to the past? A friend reminded me recently about an idea of “hospicing our past” and having a process in place to let it go. Not to forget our past, but to consciously, lovingly acknowledge what was honorable and dishonorable, then let the past die.

From this place of grief arises hope, innovation and creativity.

Just as families re-order themselves when an elder dies, our nation needs to re-order itself. There are current processes in place to help us navigate our disagreements.

In one of the most famous and powerful speeches any resident has made, Franklin Roosevelt addressed the fears of the people of our nation during the Great Depression when he said:

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.

He was summoning us as individuals and as a nation to not allow fear to paralyze us, but instead to use the fear as an opportunity for self-discovery and growth. Only by looking beneath the surface will we find the inner strength that can lead us individually and as a nation to fulfillment of the American dream.

To do otherwise is to give up on this experiment in self-governance and descend into authoritarianism.

From Your Site Articles
  • Our democracy has problems. Women have solutions. - The Fulcrum ›
  • New civic engagement hub offers opportunities for bridging political ... ›
  • We must commit to vision of shared future to have democracy. - The ... ›
  • Congress is once again unable to address gun violence - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • How to overcome fear and anxiety | Mental Health Foundation ›
  • 6 Tips to Overcoming Anxiety and Phobias ›
  • Fear factor: Overcoming human barriers to innovation | McKinsey ›
  • 14 Ways To Conquer Fear ›
civil discourse

Join an Upcoming Event

Police-Community Relations Conversation

Living Room Conversations
Jun 02, 2023 at 4:00 pm MDT
Read More
View All Events

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow
Contributors

Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Steve Corbin

A dangerous loss of trust

William Natbony

Shifting the narrative on homelessness in America

David L. Nevins

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber
latest News

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

James-Christian B. Blockwood
15h

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Mia Minkin
15h

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Kevin R. Kosar
Elise J. Bean
22h

Chipping away at election integrity: Virginia joins red state exodus from ERIC

David J. Toscano
30 May

Your Take on congressional incivility

Lennon Wesley III
26 May

White House plan to combat antisemitism needs to take on centuries of hatred, discrimination and even lynching in America

Pamela Nadell
26 May
Videos

Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirst Friday YOUnify & CPL

Our Staff

Video: What is the toll of racial violence on Black lives?

Our Staff

Video: What's next for migrants seeking asylum after Title 42

Our Staff

Video: An inside look at the campaign to repeal Pennsylvania’s closed primaries

Our Staff

Video: Where the immigration debate stands today

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: AI revolution: Disaster or great leap forward?

Our Staff
25 May

Podcast: Can we fix America's financial crises?

Our Staff
23 May

Podcast: Gen Z's fight for democracy

Our Staff
22 May

Podcast: Political Football, Inc.

Our Staff
19 May
Recommended
Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Big Picture
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

State
Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Test Unlisted
Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Diversity Inclusion and Belonging
Chipping away at election integrity: 
Virginia joins red state exodus from ERIC

Chipping away at election integrity: Virginia joins red state exodus from ERIC

Big Picture
Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Video: Honoring Memorial Day