Most Americans feel threatened and frightened - Why?

We all seem to be frightened and uncertain these days. We live in a culture that has to blame someone for everything that happens. When we feel threatened and afraid, we don't behave normally.

Years ago someone invented the term, Fight or Flight, and it seems so many people are doing just that. The stress we are dealing with now often makes us want to fight, call others bad names, criticize anyone we don't agree with, even lie about others to prove a point.

This stress, fear and uncertainty is dividing families, bringing out the worst in us. Even my dearest friends who are good, caring and loving people use phrases like  I hate him and I have felt myself so angry I am sure my blood pressure rises. When we get upset with things we can't do one thing about, it depresses us.

Since election day here in the United States, I have withdrawn from the real world as much as possible. I am sick of the name calling, the mean-spirited nature presented on TV.  

Brene' Brown says our media frightens us with all the news we see and hear. I know that is true. If the story is upsetting, it draws more viewers. If the media can bring forth a villain that unifies their viewers and brings out the worst in them, advertisers pour in money for ads on that network. In America, the bottom line is most important.  Already I see the villains will be Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Just today I heard someone say horrible things about Harris. The same thing always happens when a woman manages to get ahead in this world. They don't want to give her the respect she has earned. 

 

Look what has happened to our world since FOX News and CNN openly took opposite political sides. Each feeds hate, fear and suspicion about leaders in the other party. Whether the opinions spoken are true or not, the viewers now expect to learn all they need to know from those on their preferred Cable News. If anyone is negative about the other party, tells some conspiracy tale, the viewer falls for it.

I heard a learned man on a podcast say we are in need of something other than the status quo which he says is not working. I assume he is speaking of our government in the United States which seems to influence people around the globe. Lots of ideas flow forth from the young, the rich, the middle class, men and women, marginalized groups and senior adults like me. In order to express these different ideas and solutions for a world that seems to be going to hell in a hand basket, we see protests and rebellions against those in power. Is it time to have multi parties in this country? Would that work?

I am being very quiet and staying home. I have to make changes in my life that I can live with and, hopefully, thrive with. It means I must put my health, both mental and physical, ahead of everything else and everyone else.

Being a person who has always helped those who need me, I will now only concern myself with my needs so I can thrive in the difficulties I presently face. 

I hope 2021 will be a different world than we have today.

I know we must continue to follow guidelines for COVID-19 and I am getting used to that. I hope we will have a vaccine that we can feel is safe. I hope all people will understand what is needed to bring this virus under control and will follow those rules to do that. Sadly, today I saw a woman at the drug store who was not wearing a mask, give me an angry look which I assume was because I was wearing a mask.

I heard that a new church opened here and already seventeen people who attended there have tested positive for the virus. The man who opened this church seems to think God will not let people get sick in church!! I heard this from someone and can't be positive this is true, but I do know the new church opened just recently down the road from where I live. 

I read this non-partisan article today.  https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-hatred-negative-partisanship-came-to-dominate-american-politics/

I think this writer is on course with what has happened and why we should be concerned about political parties and how politics has polarized our entire country. This negative partisanship can destroy our democracy if we don't wake up and make changes.

My readers, I hope you are doing well and enjoying life in spite of the present conditions. I tell myself every day that I have so much for which to be thankful.  My heart goes out to those who have lost jobs and who can't pay their rent or pay doctor bills. I worry about young college graduates who can't find jobs now and have to depend on their parents to support them. Their hopes and dreams have been dashed as they planned to start their journey to independence.  Next year will see a better future for all of us, I know, and that is what gives me hope.

As for now, we have the best weather here in the mountains of NC and my trees have turned red and yellow. I sit on my deck and soak up the autumn sounds, smells and sights. My doors and windows are open to welcome the slight breezes and cool air. I welcome the dryer air which is better for my breathing than high humidity. 

Tomorrow will be a better day and I will feel happier about my life, I'm sure. I have made plans for January doing something I enjoy. I hope you are enjoying life in your world and that we can share with each other on social media, on blogs, or by email. You are very important to me.

  

How can you believe that people are basically good?

Is it because you live in a quiet rural area where we have mostly white people you can relate to and who relate to you? Believe me, there are places where, if you lived there, you wouldn’t think people are basically good. 
What about those places where people drive through and shoot into houses, where families have to crawl from room to room to keep from getting shot? Do you think those people are good?

I had to answer this line of questioning and I’ll share my words here.
I know I am fortunate to live in a place where I feel safe, where the people I encounter are decent folks. I know I am lucky to live where I can meet total strangers and smile at them and say hello without worrying about any repercussions. But I don’t believe my situation is all that different from most of the people living in this country.

Sadly, we hear on the news media only the most heinous crimes of the day, and we see them over and over. With all the television networks covering “news” there is not enough to keep news fresh all day, so they show the crimes over and over until another terrible thing happens to some person the next day in Atlanta or New York or L.A.

While that horrendous crime took place, millions of good people were going about their daily routines with no news coverage at all. Millions of nurses were caring for sick people. Millions of teachers were working to teach young children how to better live in this world. Mothers were caring for babies. Fathers were working at ordinary jobs earning a living.

I am afraid the average person who watches news channels all day long gets a skewed idea of what life in this country is really like. In fact, older retired men and often women do watch cable news all day long. A friend in Florida says she is surrounded by "angry old white people."A doctor in Texas explained it best to me. If a human being watches bad news, frightening news, over and over all day, it wrecks his nervous system and depresses him because he can’t fix any of these problems.

One of the major causes of depression is being loaded down with responsibility but having no authority to control the situation. When the story is told over and over on TV, and the person watching becomes more and more agitated over what he is seeing, he gets frustrated and upset. He can’t go to Iran or Libya and do anything to help. Without his knowledge the media is manipulating him. He becomes angry and has to turn this emotion on something or someone. His anger toward a situation becomes anger toward the president or the government, or anyone he thinks has power to do something.
He believes that every murder in a ghetto in New York is the norm for all people who live there because he sees it over and over on the News. He sees that neighborhood as a place filled with nothing but bad people. I don’t see that. In every neighborhood, even here in the mountains, some people resort to crime. A man was killed while washing his car in a rural community by two low-life punks passing through. In fashionable communities in Atlanta, we see on TV, a man killed his wife or a nanny killed the children she cared for. But that doesn’t mean that all the people who live there are bad.

I have never seen so many angry people as I have the past four years. Most of these people don’t really have any reason to be that angry. Often they are angry over something they heard or saw on TV News. They have nice homes, live well, and if their lives were the same as forty years ago, and they were at work all day instead of watching the news channels, they would be happy and enjoying life. We are letting others control our happiness when we watch the pundits on TV and become emotionally unhinged over what they tell us - some true and some not true facts.

I challenge anyone who feels angry about politics or the way our country is heading to drop out of the news all day syndrome. That includes online news as well. Besides being bombarded by TV and radio, we have the latest news flashing at us when we turn on our laptops. I went to Hawaii for ten days and did not watch any news at all during that time. What a wonderful vacation! Not just because of the beautiful beaches, the ocean breezes and watching the chickens scratching the manicured lawn beside the pool at the Marriott Resort on Kauai, but the silence, the absence from the never-ending-talk about politics on every media channel.

If you can’t go to Hawaii, just turn it off and tune it out. Like my wise husband, Barry, used to say, “Why worry about it when you can’t do anything about it?” His positive nature was a breath of fresh air and I am trying to breathe that fresh air now. He would not talk about politics and hated when I did. However, he always voted.

Now that this election is over, I hope we can find other things to discuss, other things to watch on TV, and if we don’t feed the monsters, the news channels, maybe they will go away or at least go back to giving unbiased news coverage. I know Ted Turner, when he started CNN, never meant to build a monster that would multiply and tear our country apart.