Are Americans Afraid of Optimism?

We live in an age of paradox. Crime and murders are down, yet we are more fearful than ever about gun violence. Technology has made life easier in so many ways, yet Silicon Valley is becoming the boogeyman and technology is and will be replacing jobs with greater and greater speed. Diseases that were once a death sentence are now manageable, but healthcare costs are escalating and the divide among those that can and cannot afford quality healthcare is growing. And we’re not living as long as we used to, and other nations have a better quality of life.

Millions and millions of people in the developing world are experiencing a standard of living never imagined possible, yet some would pull up the bridges and have us disconnect from that world, all while the doomsday clock moves closer to midnight. Tribalism divides us, social media, politics, and economics reinforces that divide, and the 24/7 always on culture makes it happen faster and faster. So, where is there any reason for optimism in all of this?  This is where Gregg Easterbrook takes us in It's Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear.

My WhoWhatWhy.org conversation with Gregg Easterbrook:

The Triumph of Fear

The ability to create fear is the most basic, primal and exploitive of the tools for manipulation. From the Garden of Eden, to would be Presidents amplifying the drumbeat that those that are different are rapists and killers, fear is the essential tool of demagogues.

To try and tamp down would be tyrants and exploiters, Roosevelt told us that the only thing we had to fear, was fear itself. Ed Murrow, in talking about Joe McCarthy, reminded us that McCarthy didn't create the situation of fear, “he merely exploited it...and rather successfully.” Today in our siloed, self referential, anti-factual culture, that fear is stronger than ever. Fear of change, fear of the new, fear of the other, fear of the future, are dominant.

Sasha Abramsky, in Jumping at Shadows: The Triumph of Fear and the End of the American Dream, looks at where this fear might be taking us.

My WhoWhatWhy.org conversation with Sasha Abramsky:

Fear of pain and other stories

We all remember, or have learned about, FDR telling the nation that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” In fact, it along with a clip from The Kings Speech is being used in a commercial for a new technology that might help us overcome, what is considered everyone's worst fear, that of public speaking.

Perhaps we remember Woody Allen fearing that the universe was expanding, and how that seemed like a good enough reason to skip school, in 50’s era Brooklyn.

The country is on the brink of disaster because we have elected officials who are afraid of voters, and most of all, afraid of not being reelected.

The bottom line is that in a macro world view, or in the intimacy of our personal lives, fear is a powerful motivator. But what would happen, how would the world change, how would we change, if we could mitigate or eliminate that fear?   That's what Patty Chang Anchor set out to discover in Some Nerve: Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave

My conversation with Patty Chang Anker:

Be not afraid

Whether it is fear of aging, of unemployment, of terrorism, of natural disasters, or simply of change, fear has become the dominant paradigm of our times. Obama came to office offering us hope, the opposite of fear, Roosevelt said " the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Yet the reality and speed of 21st century life, coupled with fear mongers amongst us, give us a world that in the words of Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his new book Conquering Fear: Living Boldly in an Uncertain World
drains us of the joy and purpose of our lives.

My conversation with Rabbi Harold Kushner: Powered by Podbean.com