Fear for All

The saying was ‘free for all’ when I was growing up. It did not refer to getting something for free, or a wild binge of giving a lot of people a lot of things. Rather, it referred to wild, exuberant behavior by a crowd of people (from 4 or more people). Such behavior witnessed a bobble of activity in which people pretty much did what they wanted to do without concern of what others thought. Grabbing for candy from a large bowl, hogging the popcorn while watching TV at home, yakking loudly on the phone in the presence of others, conversation that breaks out in groups throughout the room, then switches to other teams of talkers, you know, sort of an unorganized bedlam. Nothing bad, really, just rambunctious, good natured and fun.

Well, the term today is fear for all.

News stories, however innocent, contain hints of ideas that bode ill. For someone, somewhere, the bad lurks ready to pounce.

A housing bubble awaits its move and outcomes. What will it be like? A major collapse of supply chains diddles around at the edges of commerce just waiting to spring its biggest surprises. What will that be like?

Inflation making shopping a big game sport, when will larger effects be seen and how will we ever cope with whatever that is?

Lately, I’ve been reading novels about wartime. Different wars, different countries, all historically accurate of course, but from the perspective of the noncombatants trying to live their lives in total chaos. Like Ukrainians do today, these stories are of World War I and II in France, Poland, and Russia. Horribly gruesome. Achingly painful. These people survived unthinkable hardships. Death stalked their lives. Hunger was a constant. Fear for each person reigned.

Today, public media is filled with horrors in the wings of our theater of life. What will happen next? How will it change our lives? Nowhere are their suggestions as to what to do about the condition, or even how to survive it.

Why? Why is our social persona so negative? Why don’t we follow stories of people and groups doing something positive about a problem? Where is the story about research organizations about to unveil a master stroke of ingenuity solving a much-detested problem, disease, social injustice, etc.?

Where is our public attention these days? On the bad? Or the good? Whatever its focus, is that OK? If not, why not?

The fear for all has become a free for all of dread.

I ask, why?

I work with a lot of people who focus their attention on solutions. Where are their stories?

May 11, 2022

 

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