THE FEAR FACTOR COULD BE THE DOWNFALL OF THE UNITED STATES

THE FEAR FACTOR COULD BE THE DOWNFALL OF THE UNITED STATES

By Domenick J. Maglio Ph.D. Traditional Realist

The US has had a long period of prosperity and peace. We have been the strongest nation in the world with military and economic superiority. The greatest concern many people faced was what was the next luxury item to buy.

Most of us have never previously faced a world depression, world war, national catastrophe or a pandemic. We are currently confronted by a world-wide panic that is being fanned by conflicting information. These are based on wild speculation and government elites’ desire to blanket the nation with their ominous edicts to alter our government. It appears they want to frighten us then demand that we do things that Americans have never been forced to do in the past.

The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights has been suspended in many areas of the country. Schools, restaurants, and various businesses have been shut down. “Social distancing” has been the reason given for not being able to gather in groups. Even public access to beaches (one of the healthiest environments there is) has been revoked by government decree. People have been told to remain in their homes and not congregate in the streets, bars, clubs, stores, homes or any place where people can interact even churches. These government mandated self-quarantine is being done for supposedly “the greater good” of all citizens. It has devastated our economic system. 

The frightening and unnerving feature of this intrusion into citizens’ lives is how easily people have complied. The main thing the government planners have done is introduce relentless fear into the public arena every day. The government health agencies talk daily about speculative scientific disease models. These have been introduced into the discussion to create a narrative that is more threatening than the last one.

The models are as valid as the assumptions and data fed into it. As the number of deaths claimed by the medical profession to be caused by the Coronavirus changes, the panic level increases. Recently Dr. Fauci said there could be from 100,000 to 200,000 deaths, “but don’t quote me on that” after the experts originally stated there could be 2.2 million deaths in the United States. Any of these estimates are high enough to raise the heart rate of most Americans. These pseudo-scientific figures are spread like wildfire by the media. The public repeats them to each other increasing the apparent veracity of the number and creating an avalanche of fear.

Life is tenuous. The death tolls per year for the following categories is staggering: heart disease- 650,000, cancer- 600,000, accidental deaths- 165,000, respiratory disease- 160,000, strokes- 146,000, diabetes- 83,000, suicides- 47,000, drug deaths-70,200, smoking related deaths- 480,000, second hand smoking- 7,330, influenza- 56,000. They all would cause a great amount of panic if they were orchestrated by the media night after night. These are only some of the major groups of deaths. Focusing on death can only increase anxiety, depression, that lowers our immune system. This is what the Covid-19 panic is doing, even though many of the other disease death tolls are much greater.

As FDR stated during WWII, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Of course we should do everything to lower the risk of being exposed to Coronavirus including building up our immune systems by eating well, sleeping enough and living properly with positive thinking. FDR’S wise advice allowed many citizens during WWII to deal with and overcome legitimate issues of survival.

Our government could easily choose to create panic for many of the illnesses listed above with the same level of fear factor especially for influenza except it was not presented as dramatically as was the pandemic. This Covid-19 is running its course. We will develop a vaccine that will defeat the virus.

There are many ways of living in our short life span. Living in fear is the least preferable. Americans in the past have been forward- looking optimists. They had faith and lived everyday appreciating the grace of God. Most asked Him for courage to conquer their worst fears and he answered.

Without God’s afterlife the thought of any means of dying would provoke distress, anxiety or immobilization. This is not in the DNA of Americans. Our nation’s ancestors were adventurous and brave people who overcame immense hardships to come here and struggled to reach the American Dream. These sturdy individuals pushed aside troubles, rejection and fears to fight to become assimilated and accepted as Americans. We need to have the same faith in God as did our ancestors.

We again need to think positively, thankfully and humbly for all we have been given and rid ourselves of destructive fear. We need to elevate our courage to regain our strength as the leader of the free world.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a recent book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.