I was three years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, thus hastening our participation in World War II. Throughout the war, right up until the treaty was signed, the reigning terrors were that our loved ones would be killed while fighting for our country; the mainland might be hit; just a generalized fear of any country that could produce people as crazy as Kamikaze pilots.
The movies Reds and Dr. Zhivago were good examples of using sound effects to demonstrate changes in Russia and surrounding countries. Noise and speed and loud swelling music demonstrated how fast communism was thrust upon the world. In one of them, it shows a rather mild mannered socialist college student being transformed into Lenin. The wheels and noise and speed of the train Lenin rode across his country exemplifies the speed, noise and shock with which communism hit the world. It left in it's wake the American fear that there might be a communist hiding behind every bush. McCarthyism spread throughout America as well as our government, ruining lives and careers of many people, some of them innocent.
After the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, every small village in the world wanted to own them. Most still do. During the cold war, this was the fad of fears. It was the "in" thing hanging over our heads. Some more fearful people, who also had the dollars, built underground shelters to protect them when the end came.
But the cold war ended and saner heads prevailed. Wise people in wise countries began to dismantle nuclear arsenals. Fears began to subside a little.
Concurrent with nuclear fears were fears of what would happen to human body parts if we didn't use them enough. Some people became obsessed cyclists and walked as often as possible to make sure the species did not evolve without legs.
During the time of the military draft, people feared their fathers, sons, their mates would be called up to be sent to some Asian country to fight for some other government. But the worst of the fear became that when they got home their minds and hearts would be so scarred they would never totally recover.
All these wars in the Middle East keep bringing up the "petrol fear". What would happen if Americans got cut off from their petrol source? Ho hum! You mean we might have to cut back to one car per family? We might have to walk six blocks to see a friend? Our lives might even become less harried and complicated if we didn't have to rush back out to soccer games, etc.
Then there is the fear of losing our natural resources. We were urged to keep our waterways clean and to conserve everything. Then there came the fear of losing it all to global warming, which quite possibly has nothing to do with people. It may just be a natural cycle of the world.
And now we have the fear of terrorism. These crazies are worse than the Japanese pilots. They strike whomever, whenever, wherever they can find security is weak or lapsed.
There is last, but not least, the fear of losing it all to illegal aliens -- to drug cartels -- to gun infested gangs -- to crazy snipers.
When you have lived as long as I, you will have been cognizant that fears tend to run in trends. Some of them are quite real. Some represent borrowing trouble.
The best way not to become paralyzed by the fears is to learn as much as possible. Then you take reasonable steps to protect you and yours. In religious homes, we pray and ask for God's protection of us all. Then, we live our lives to the fullest. The best revenge on terrorists and fear mongers is to live our lives to the maximum and richest extent. Do not let them win.
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