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Is It Fear You Feel, Or Anxiety?
Knowing the answer makes all the difference
It’s a scary time to be alive, right now. There’s a lot going on that could potentially do lasting harm to society, our way of life, perhaps even to life itself. As a planet, we are facing a multitude of theoretically existential threats.
But I think it’s also fair to step back from the situation for a moment and ask ourselves “is it really so bad out there?”
It may be cynical of me, but aren’t we always facing some potentially existential threat?
When has our world been free of chaos? When have our daily lives been free of care and worry? Why are we panicking now? Is the Coronavirus really that much scarier than SARS or H1N1? Is the stock market crashing that much harder than in 2008, or 1929 (some would say yes)? Is our political system that much more dysfunctional than it was under Richard Nixon, or James Buchanan, the president who brought us to the brink of the Civil War through his inaction?
So why do we feel this way?
I feel it, as I’m sure many of you do. I feel that this time, something is different. I sometimes imagine I can sense the uncertainty and borderline panic in the air around me like a negative charge. In fact, that feeling is common, and research shows there might be…
