Fear for profit

The older I get, the more I notice how much of our society runs on fear. The media is the chief purveyor of fear on a widespread scale, but you can find it on a more personal level every day too.

 
 

Starting with the media, however – if you notice lately, and more so every day, the headlines, the news segments are all geared around something new we need to be afraid of: cancer, obesity, heart disease, ebola, zika…fraud, floods, freezing temperatures, a torturous commute to work, a new danger lurking in the refrigerator or the washing machine or at the corner store.

 

 

 I’ve realized that if we are, as a community, afraid of something, we are more controllable, more malleable and infinitely more profitable for business of every kind. If we are afraid of a snowstorm that will trap us in our homes for days on end, we rush out to stock up on milk and bread. If we are afraid of becoming terribly ill with the flu, we will let Big Pharma inject us with chemicals as a preventative [all I’ve ever heard from people who got the flu shot is how they ended up with the flu – yet they were so afraid of not getting the shot]. If we are afraid of having a heart attack we will modify our diet [often in ways that are actually worse for our health], if we’re afraid of being fat we will turn over large buckets of cash to diet companies who will sell us chemicals and fads that only make us feel worse. If we are afraid of cancer, we will allow doctors to pump us full of poison and radiation all the while telling us how ‘brave’ we are to be fighting for our lives.

 

 

There is always someone who wants us to be afraid of something so that it will profit them.

 

 

I had a small, brief moment of clarity the other day, and for a second I could understand and feel what it was like to not be afraid. It only lasted a moment – but that moment made me think, what would an entire life be like if it could be lived without fear?

 

 

Now, granted, fear is a necessary element of survival. If you’re not afraid of the lion, you may become his dinner. If you’re not afraid of fire, you will be burned. But how often are we told that if we’re too afraid to fall we’ll never fly?

 

 

Imagine how high we could fly if we weren’t burdened with incessant fear of everything? I’ve always lived in this state of fear that society has created. While there are certainly people who live in fear of truly horrible things that are much worse than anything I’ve experienced, I realize I’m one of millions or maybe billions of people who are controlled by the fear that’s created in order to boost the profits of others.

 

 

What would happen if we stopped worrying every minute that we might be sick and not know it, and therefore should be running to the doctor all the time for tests to prove that we are not sick? What would happen if we could vote for a president because we thought that person was the best qualified for the job and not because we are terrified of what will happen if the opponent we don’t like wins the election?

 

 

I wonder how much money would be lost if we stopped being afraid of every calorie, afraid of missing a mammogram, afraid of getting a fever, afraid of growing old, afraid of LOOKING old?

 

 

What would happen if we were too busy living life and enjoying it to worry about dying?

 

 

Unfortunately my moment of clarity was fleeting, but I can’t stop thinking about it. My hope is that I can keep working on it and maybe get to a point where I can let go of some of that fear that has kept me controllable and profitable to the fear mongers for so long. My hope is that in the second half of my life I can live it on my terms and not be afraid of what anyone else will think of my choices.

 

 

 As long as I’m happy and I can get up every day and go to work, enjoy my hobbies, spend time with my family and friends, laugh and love and look forward to things – then guess what, I’m doing perfectly okay, and NO ONE has the power to make me afraid that I’m not doing what’s best for me because I’m not a customer of their fear based profit machine.