Afraid not

Pundits these days are yakking away regarding “fear.” Glenn Beck is all about fear. Bush figured out how to make people fearful. Republican congresspersons are all about engendering fear into everybody. Yadda yadda.

Well, I disagree, because it isn’t fear that these conservatives are trying to lather you up with – it is dread. I’m afraid of bears, but I’m not afraid of anything some half-baked ex-Top Forty DJ like Beck has to say.

But dread – that’s the anxious, nonspecific feeling that arises when the future becomes unpredictable. Like the feeling you get when you aren’t so sure about your job, or your medical tests come up a little off. Or when Fox News spouts off about the deficit, or BP poisons half the Gulf of Mexico. Like, now what?

Many conservatives, fundamentalist Christians, and low-info voters have decided that rules, regulations and forcing people to “behave” to their authoritarian standards is how you deal with dread. Furthermore, authoritarians tend to agree with the concept of “the ends justify the means.” Hence, the mess in Wisconsin, birther nonsense and the relentless discrediting of Obama no matter what he does.

The lesson? Good or bad, the future isn’t predictable. Get over it.

Nancy Runyan

Spokane Valley