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Selling Fear Is Evil
I’ve been under a lot of stress, recently. Problems at work. I’m not sleeping much, and I feel lousy. Which is why I’ve been posting so much recently. Sorry about that, but it keeps my mind off of other things. Anyway, I’ve been trying to focus on the big picture, telling myself that overall, things are good, which is true. I’ve got a thriving concierge practice with a waiting list. This is what I’ve been trying to build for decades. But it’s easy to get caught up in the little distractions along the way. Because at the time, little distractions are all that matter. At that particular moment. But they’re generally not as important as they seem, in the grand scheme of things. In order to focus on the long view, one must have confidence. In a great many things.
My path to this point has been complex. I grew up on a hog farm in a poor area of southeastern Ohio. We lost our farm when I was sixteen. I then went to college and medical school, borrowing money all the way, figuring that if this worked out, I could pay everything off later. Somehow. I went into family medicine, built a solo practice over several years, got a second board certification in lipidology, and built my practice from there. The longer I practiced, I kept seeing patients while I continued to work on becoming a better and better physician, through more and more education, and more and more speaking at conferences and such. Now, I’m 52 years old, and I’m good enough at the various aspects of this job to run a concierge practice in Hilton Head, with very wealthy patients who pay me big money to keep them alive. So things have worked out very well. Eventually. But really, all this started in my early teens, as I built a long-term plan, which is only now coming to fruition in my 50s.
I’ve worked hard and taken a lot of risks. And things have worked out very well. Eventually. But there are many things that could have prevented me from achieving all this. For example, fear. Fear of failure. Fear of my obvious inadequacies overwhelming my less obvious attributes. Fear of significant changes in the field of medicine between when I decided to pursue it as a career as a child, and when I could actually capitalize on my investment of time and hard work (forty years later). Fear of something beyond my control that I could not overcome. Fear of all sorts of things.
Fear is poison to long-term plans. Fear leads one to focus only on what is directly in front of you. Understandably. Fear limits your ability to focus on the big picture, and look past your more immediate setbacks. Making long-term plans is possible only if one is not afraid of what will happen in the meantime.
My need for courage was mitigated by my belief that medicine is what I was supposed to be doing with this brain, and my general tendency toward stubborn single-mindedness. But still, one thing that could have stopped my progress right in its tracks is fear. Any type of fear.
What does the Democrat party derive its power from? Fear.
They encourage blacks to fear whites. They encourage whites to fear riots. They encourage all of us to fear COVID, global warming, unemployment, and all sorts of other things. They encouraged everyone to fear the heartless Christianity of George W. Bush. And the secret malice of Mitt Romney. And the mean tweets of Donald Trump. And the racism of whoever Republicans nominate next. They encourage fear of the intolerant Jews of Israel, against the open-minded tolerance of the Muslims of Hamas.
Fear is the lifeblood of the Democrat party. Without fear, why would anyone vote Democrat?
Which works for them. Democrats can’t get elected without fear. So they sell fear.
But what does the fear they’re selling do to their constituents?
It destroys hopes and dreams. It prevents ambition for a better tomorrow from ever crossing someone’s mind, let alone actually come to fruition after decades of hard work. The fear that empowers Democrats makes their followers weak and helpless. And completely dependent on Democrats.
And that’s ok. It’s ok with Democrats, at least. Which makes sense. Unless you consider ethics. Which Democrats, apparently, do not.
I look at my life experience, and I think of what would have happened if I had bought into the fear promoted by the Democrat party.
And then I look at the Democrat party, and I see evil.
I know it’s more complex than that. But all I can see is evil. They’re not a wet blanket. They’re a destructive force. Destroying everything they touch. From race relations, to women’s athletics, to abortion law, to professional sports, to energy independence, to inner-city crime rates, to the lives of anyone who trusts them.
I know it’s more complex than that. It must be. I hope that it is.
But from my perspective, it’s not.
Selling fear is evil.
Published in General
Having lived through all those decades, I don’t know that I could say one is more boring than another. In the 60s people claimed that the 50s were boring, and maybe they were for some people. But government has grown to stifle a lot of interesting things we used to be free to do (including some things to which we can say good riddance).
Here’s the deal: When times are interesting, people want them to be more boring. When they are boring, people want them to be more interesting.
I was thinking more along the lines of human frailty than intentional fraud.
Via Tyler Cowen: a woman speaking about her date and her dating philosophy:
Her other nonnegotiable is quarantine behavior. She was happy when she found out [male name redacted] takes safety seriously, interacting with only a small pod of people and limiting travel. “That showed me we had similar values,” she said. “Being caring, empathetic — and also believing in science and CDC regulations and guidelines.”
Tyler says:
No, I am not interested in giving you a link or in identifying anybody by name. The point is this: this is one of the very best paragraphs ever written in helping you to understand the Blue State reaction to the pandemic.
Lots of comments at the post.
I have friends in their eighties and they are either the most aware people on the planet or else they are total Dem sycophants. The friends who are Dem sycophants are still reacting to incidents that came about when they were coming of age. Like their remembrance of their shock at having it reported in their local Indiana paper that a black man was lynched by a mob for his supposed rape of a white woman.
This group really doesn’t realize that things have changed. By 1984, it was impossible not to realize that neighborhoods were integrated, the job scenes at large corporations and government agencies were too.
Charity begins at home, Henry. I don’t think that’s petty, or trolling, but that’s jmnsho as usual.
Hear hear! Some people think faith is the opposite of doubt. But doubt is part of the calculus of faith, and (as per Tillich) a measure of doubt is included in every act of faith. Doubt is not the enemy of faith: it is part of the battlefield. Fear, however, fits tidily as the best antonym for faith – interfering with our ability and desire to choose, trust, hope and act. Fear encourages paralysis, avoidance, procrastination and excuse. Little wonder that the purveyors of fear also belittle agency and accountability.
Everything you mentioned has a kernel of truth Zafar.
The replacement theory is popular among the vanishingly small group of white racists in the UK and the U.S.A. But aren’t leftist in both countries openly saying that we should let poor immigrants in so they vote for the left. I think Tony Blair pretty much said that he let in more Pakistani immigrants to get more people to vote for labour in the UK.
I am unconvinced that Joe Biden stole the election but there was alot of cheating done by democrats that the media refuses to investigate. I understand people who get nervous about that.
As for the Islamofacist No Go Zones, maybe the police do go there but they are afraid to go there and Muslim immigrants who aren’t Iranian or Ahmadiyya have a strong tendency to make very rough neighborhoods.
Half lies are the most pernicious lies because can look like what is true. Thusly, the best thing is to address the true parts and cut out the falseness rather than pretend that half lies don’t have some semblance of reality.
Maybe you can talk about this sort of thing on a Land of Confusion episode?
That would be Tucker Carlson:
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/tucker-carlson-s-great-replacement-fox-news-segment-uses-newer-ncna1263880
I would prefer to argue with what Tucker Carlson said rather than what NBC thinks he said.
How about arguing with a Leftist about what they actually said, just to be consistent?
Agreed. That’s the gold standard.
Well you raised the issue. Now find a Leftist who said that. Fair expectation?
Platitudes begin at the keyboard.
If the shoe fits wear it.
I have wide German peasant feet.
There is a story a member of a state Health Facility Evaluation Section likes to tell. Studies had indicated that mirrors at surgical scrub stations were a bad idea, as it encouraged people to touch their face and/or hair after scrubbing, and re-contaminating there hands. A surgeon adamantly insisted the mirror needed to stay so, “I can look god in the face,” before he entered the OR.
I don’t want a surgeon who doesn’t have a bit of that in him.