Closing the Book on Fear

At around 11 p.m. last night I finally finished Freakonomics. Honestly, if you haven't already read it, you should, and I'm not necessarily one for non-fiction. But part of what drew me in to the book was the author's insistence that much of what currently drives American culture is fear. This isn't a particularly new idea for me. After all, I've spent the last seven years - as we all have - watching President Bush use fear as a reason to invade other countries and impart the American ideals he believes are so superior on others. Fear of terrorism, fear of an invasion, fear of nuclear weapons -- all clearly a means to institute torture as means of gaining information.

But I digress, and don't meant to torture you with my thoughts on the American government. 

If you've been tuning in to CNN, CNBC, and all other news reports on the primaries, you've probably come to realize that the new "hot" topic of the week is the economy and the impending recession. Why? Because the impending financial doom has been shoved down our throats by the media and most of us - now in fear that we might lose our money, our jobs, our homes - have become worried about the many facets of our life that may go down the drain.

With all of these macro-fears being force-fed to us, it's no wonder we're all a little more anxious these days. People today fear commitment, fear change, fear their own shadows, and in truth, I'm no different. I fear people at working thinking I'm not doing my job well enough. I fear I'm not a good enough writer to "make it." I fear I'm not original. Fear is a part of everyone - and some just now how to capitalize on it more than others.

Companies live in fear, too, of being bought out, expanding too fast, not expanding enough, losing talent, of not being a leader in its field, firing poor employees for fear of being counter sued. The list could go on and on. 

Publishing is no different. The six or so major houses fear that they won't jump onto a trend quickly enough, that their big authors will leave (hence the money in terms of an advance or marketing dollars) that's sometimes thrown at big name writers to satisfy them, and of course, that the digital age will eat up the public's desire to read (evidence that this may actually one day be the case is mounting). A couple of years ago, when Google announced it's plans to scan entire texts for the public to download, publishers were furious--and frightened. And rightly so! No one makes money off of such an arrangement - neither the house or the author.

And let us not forget that publishers tend to be owned by the major media conglomerates that own the same television networks that pump fears into us daily. NewsCorp. owns FOX and HarperCollins. CBS owns Simon & Schuster. The list is long and publishing houses - no stranger to the concept of capitalizing on what we're scared of - do publish against fear. Consider the popularity of The Secret. Would it be so popular if not for the population's fear that they aren't currently, or won't one day, be happy? 

Yet with all this fear incubating inside of me -- inside all of us really -- I started to think about the man who dedicated his life to demanding more rights for African-Americans. Today is less about sleeping late and making it to a 10 a.m pilates class at the gym. It's about honoring Martin Luther King Jr. who did not live in fear and in the end, because of it, lost his life. He may have died young, but his years here were worth something. His passion mirrored the passions of many, many other Americans who were either silenced or too fearful to speak up.

So, as a writer, marketing, mother, sister -- whoever you are -- perhaps you, and all of us, should all stop fearing our own lives - and our own death, which by the way is the number one fear among Americans - and consider learning a little something from those who have passed before us.