Fear Pushes Back:

“We have Nothing to Fear, but Fear Itself “— FDR

For the price of a cup of coffee I have garnered a table on the ground floor of the Koch Institute for Cancer Research at MIT. I spent part of the morning listening to papers being delivered at Neurotech 2016 which describe the new and fascinating ways that many neuro-labs are probing into brains to help solve neurological mysteries. There are now technologies that have allowed people to seek answers to questions we didn’t even know to ask ten years ago.

There is irony of course, sitting here at this Koch Institute, which is funded by the same family that also funds some of the most conservative political issues in our country. They did not fund Trump, but their money did help spread exaggerated fear about what is happening in America. It is this fear that is pushing back against the adoption of many of the new technological and scientific advances that are being developed right here on this campus, and at other places all around the country and the world. It is the fear of change.

Trump, the Republican right, the Alt-right, the rightwing reactionary parties that are growing all over the world, and even ISIS, have aimed their messages at that fear. They are appealing to people to hold on to the traditional ways that have worked for centuries. In most cases these are the extreme form of the traditional ways. In many cases the arguments are based upon the unprovable and unfounded beliefs that were the guiding principles of the world before the scientific method of thought began to take hold. In other cases the arguments are put forth by those who have run the traditional power structure, as they struggle to stay in power. They have been feeling that their influence is being eroded by forces that they don’t quite understand and they can’t control. Their response is to clamp down more controls. They justify doing this by raising fears about the usual scapegoats; people who are different, ideas that are different, and any redistribution of power.

There is enough truth in this fear of change to attract almost half the world into being willing to give up much of their freedoms to feel safe. I know, from being a therapist for so many years, how difficult and frightening change can be. Even when the change is obviously for the better, most people resist.

I have spent decades working with people who struggle to stop eating at McDonald’s, stop hitting their kids, stop spending more money than they have. They understand that they need to study to pass a test and exercise to stay healthy. It would help if they could tell people what they want instead of being angry all the time. They haven’t learned that if you promised someone you would do something, do it.

When I talk about these things in therapy people agree that those are the things they want to do. They are almost all capable of change, but it takes months and years for it to happen. The biggest obstacle is fear. Feeling bad has become familiar. How does anyone know what the change will fee like?

If we move away from the being lead by old, White men, who will replace them? Will it be better? For whom? What’s the guarantee?

If I have been told all my life that there is one true god, and these people have a different god, or no god at all, how can I trust them? They are blasphemers. They are infidels.

Many wmen realize that they are as smart, capable and creative as any man. They see that they can prove themselves in the world, and be proud of their accomplishments. But many of them wonder if that freedom is worth giving up their male protectors and the financial support that often goes with it. They feel safer being supportive and nurturing. Why take on challenges when dependency is easier?

All these changes are frightening. I feel much safer if I carry a gun. Everyone on TV carries a gun and shoots the bad-guys. I want to be a hero, protect my family, and shoot bad guys too. Good guy Americans have always shot bad guys (and Indians, [and Black people, but we never talk about that]).

Changes are coming from all over. Almost all jobs have changed, or have been lost. Marriage is between anyone. People from so many countries are moving to other countries. Some are running away from being killed by militias or bombs from their own government. Some come here to start a business and make money. Some come here to pick fruit or cut your lawn. How can I tell which ones are terrorists?

There are so many new ways to communicated and get information. How do I know whom to believe? Facebook? The New York Times? Fox News, My friend Leslie? My doctor? The ads on TV? A priest? A neurobiologist?

When the changes get scary people want to hide. They want a big strong Daddy to protect them and make the decisions. They want a father, who knows best, just like in 1959, when nice White families lived in small towns with quirky neighbors and the same newspapers were delivered to everyone’s door. But we now know that comforting Cliff Huxtable turned out to be Bill Cosby, the rapist. We already know that our new leader-to-be is an overly sensitive narcissist, who retaliates against any criticism. But many are willing to give up some freedoms to feel safe, even when the danger is really slight.

As i sit here in this coffee shop, and go across the street to the conference, I see who it is who is making all of these changes. It is people from all over the world working together, sharing knowledge, trying to correct mistakes, trying to solve the mysteries of life. They are men and women who are all different colors, sizes, styles and backgrounds. Most of them are doing it because it is fascinating, helpful and exciting. Money is hardly a consideration. They want knowledge. They want to make the world better. They are amazed that given what we know today, so many people can still get so angry at each other over such irrelevant things.

What are these diverse groups of people doing? Here in this building they are developing new ways to fight cancer. Some of the treatments are already in use. They were not available five years ago. In the building a cross the street, where the conference is being held, a woman named Canan Dagneviren is describing how she is building “a mechanically-adaptive, mirco-fabricated device for chronic treatment of neurological disorders.”

Dr. Dagneviren was born and educated in Turkey, and then she came to do her graduate work in the U.S. She may or may not be a Muslim. I am sure that many people in the U.S. would yell at her to go back to where she came from. I am sure that the in-flow of people like her, who would love to come here to study, explore and create, will be diminished because of the unwelcoming atmosphere that has been created by this election.

The funding for this research comes from a combination of foundation money and a lot of government grants. But the flow of the government money has been cut by a conservative Congress. It will be worse under Trump, a man who doesn’t understand science, doesn’t want change and seems frightened of innovation.

But even he, with all of his Presidential powers can’t stop the changes from coming. They are pouring in over the fibre-optic network. They are moving in next door. They are the electric, self-driving cars that will be on the highway. They are keeping us healthy. They are warming our planet. They are taking away our jobs. They are making some new people very rich.

These new technologies could be saving the lives of many more people. They could be feeding many hungry people all around the world. They could be controlling greenhouse gases. They could be helping us all live longer, healthier, more prosperous and creative lives. But obstacles get thrown in their path because people are afraid of change. Unfortunately, the backlash seems to always be a part of the process. Change, even when it is clearly beneficial, never comes easily. Adaptation and evolution can take a long time, and many species don’t survive.

Bang, Bang....Again

Bang, bang.  another white man fires an assault weapon into a crowd of unsuspecting people. He is not a Muslim. He was hardly on anyone’s list of really dangerous people.  It’s just another shooting that will make the headlines for a day, or maybe two, and then, like all the others, just fade away onto the long list of pissed-off, white men shooting people they don’t know. That is, unless the bullet went through your husband, sister or child. There have been about one school shooting a week, just at schools, since the massacre at Sandy Hook.

Already, it is clear that the explanation for this man’s behavior, as with all of them, is that he has”mental health difficulties.” This is a concern of mine since I am a mental health professional.

But this one at Planned Parenthood, in November, 2015, has upset me, perhaps even more than the others. This one appears to be much more of an American Terrorist who has been motivated and encouraged by the current level of political antipathy.  But I doubt that Carly Fiorina, or Fox News feels that they have any blood on their hands.

I followed the messages on Twitter that were responding to the shooting as the man was being surrounded by the police.  So many of them were supportive of his invasion into Planned Parenthood.  I realize that it was Twitter, and that is the place to say as many outrageous and inflammatory things as possible, but so many people, many of whom seemed to base their comments on religion, felt that the shooting was somehow justified.

What frightened me was how these messages were full of the same kind of certainty, and the same kind of blind religious fervor that makes everyone fear ISIS.  But that is a part of the freedom that America offers — the freedom to believe anything you want, and to turn in into a public truth.

None of these thoughts are completely new or wildly insightful.  It just becomes increasingly upsetting for me, as I age, to see that even though so many aspects of our lives have changed, evolved and improved, these improvements are always followed by a strong paranoia about change. At some level there must be a genetic predisposition to fear differences.  Changes in the way we live makes things feel different. People fear change. Fear is a more powerful and protective emotion than curiosity.  We have to feel safe, and somewhat secure within ourselves to be curious. Fear takes that away.

Fear distorts our judgment about how dangerous a threat really is. The fears people have can be mollified by classifying the dangerous person as an outlier.  We always say that the person who frightens us has mental health problems.  He is not one of us, just like the foreigners, the Muslims and, very often, African-Americans.  Politicians know that fear is very powerful, and they often inflate it, to distract everyone from calm, rational, reasoning; from finding a response that may be beneficial, that could lead to a solution beyond just placing blame.  Stoking fear has always been a very successful strategy. 

Any American is much more likely to be harmed by a disturbed white man with a rapid-fire weapon than by a band of ISIL jihadists. But I guess we accept that danger as part of the great American tradition of freedom of expression mixed with the right to bear arms. 

That’s what frightens me.

Terror, Violence, Instability...Crazy?

Another shocking act of terror, this time, again, in Paris.

The purpose is to be shocking, the purpose is to terrorize. Twenty years ago I remember reading a prediction that this would be what the world would be like.  After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the idea of a lot of "asymmetrical" battles would occur against fanatics.  They would not represent countries, or anything or anyone that a nation could clearly go to war against, just random acts of terror like this, designed to make everyone feel vulnerable, anywhere, any time.

I gave my little talk last week at the Psychological Convention.  My talk was premised on the idea that emotional and psychological problems are very complex, and that their causes are not just psychological, or biological, or familial, or environmental, but all of those things -- all of those things interacting, all the time.

One of the questions I posed to the group was, " Are all suicide bombers crazy?"  No one answered that question and we moved on to the Big Data part of the discussion.

But clearly now, that is a relevant question.  What does it take for someone to decide that it is a viable option to go and kill as many people who have done nothing to him, with the knowledge that he will almost certainly die himself while doing that?

I guess, at some level, they have to feel their cause is that important.  Do they also think their lives have no future, or do they believe that they will be given a greater future in some kind of after-life?
Or do they feel that the resulting infamy and media coverage is enough to have made their lives worth it?

What kind of group pressure, family pressure, religious fervor, does it take?

This kind of behavior is not new.  Countries, empires, city states, have all been able to convince energetic, healthy young men to go charging into battle for centuries, often at the cost of their lives. All for the greater glory of....what?

Even now the U.S.  has its soldiers all over the world, and now we will certainly have more of them, going into battle against these forces of terror.  Battle, often to the death, has been the way of humans for as long as their have been different groups that can oppose each other.  Religiously, it began right at the beginning with Cain and Able.

But now, the world is much more interconnected.  More and more people are beginning to feel that a person living in China or New Zealand, is very similar and just as worthy a soul, as a person living in Ferguson, MO, London, Moscow or Mogadishu.  We read the same internet news, look at the same pictures of kittens, trade with each other, lend each other vast sums of money, and visit each other's countries in numbers that were unheard of fifty years ago.

But, there are still many, probably a majority of people, who feel that their culture, religion, race, subculture, family, is better, and more important than any other.  They feel that anyone, or any slight difference is a threat to their survival, and therefore needs to be destroyed.

It is the struggle between these two world views that is going on now, internationally, and nationally here in the U.S.  It seems to describe the differences between our two major political parties.

In some ways, both of these views are correct.  The world will not be safe until we all learn to understand each other and resolve our differences peacefully.  We now have the knowledge and technology to be able to do that.

But until that is done, there are people who will fight that goal, and insist on destroying it, and "we" need to be protected from "them."

Why all this?

My girls are stressed. They are worried about wild animals and poison ivy.  But they are four and five years old and they have just been able to realize that the world is full of danger, especially if they're away from Mommy or Daddy. It's a normal reaction.  They have found out that the world is full of difficulties, but that's never going to change.  The difficulties these two little girls face are ripples in the water compared to the waves that most of the children of the world have to deal with, but everything can look ominous when you're four.

What saddens me more is how much fear and stress so many adults seem to be carrying around, and I'm not talking about the folks who are risking their lives to find safety, fleeing from countries where governments and rebels kill everyone in their path.  I'm referring to people who are trying to earn a living, support a family, pay for college, plan for retirement, take care of a sick or old person -- all the things that happen in a life.

I've been reading the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. In the early part of the book he makes the point that the move from the life of the hunter/gatherer to the agricultural way of life was a big step for civilization, but not a good move for most of the people the vast majority were peasants and had to work the land as long as the sun was up.  A few nobles and royalty lived the life of leisure. Now, I can't say that I agree with this, as I have not interviewed too many hunter/ gatherers. The lives of some of the  adolescent street kids I see actually seem to depend upon many of the same skills that helped the survival of our very early ancestors, and the lives of these kids is certainly quite stressful, so I'm not sure I agree with him.

But the point is this, technological advances, whether it is the ability to harvest wheat, develop GMO crops, find directions with a GPS, or ask Siri how to make onion soup, are all ways that make life easier, but also have the unintended consequence of making life go faster, and thus making people more stressed.

One hundred years ago, when T.R. was president, he would work from 9 Am to noon.  He would send out letters and and wait two weeks to get an answer.  Now everything is instantaneous. The result is that people have to work all the time. If you open an email people expect an answer, immediately.  Now people won't read their emails.

Even fifty years ago most people worked 9 to 5, went home, had a cocktail, watched TV and went to bed.  Now people can work at home, but they also feel the pressure to be working 24 hours a day.

AND, since everything is running constantly, businesses have learned to charge on a subscription basis.  There are fewer things you own; that can be paid for once and that's it.  Every month we pay for cable TV, protective software, phones, cloud storage, data, software,.  Medical companies have caught on.  Drug companies have developed medicines we need to take a pill a week or every day for the rest of our lives.  Nothing is cured; we pay on subscription.  Oxygen tanks are rented, breathing machines are leased.

That means we have to keep on working to make the monthtly payments.  Even a mortgage had a 30 year limit. Iinternet, wireless and medicines go on for ever.

It's supposed to make us healthier, but it creates stress.

So don't worry, the coyotes who roam suburbia won't eat you, but the corporations, who are just there to make a living -- except for places like Volkswagen who knew they were cheating us-- will help keep the stress level high.  And stress corrupts our immune system, which makes us more vulnerable to depression, cancer, diabetes, and just plain irritable pissed-offedness, which stresses relationships.

I don't know if there is a way out, except all of my patients who are over seventy seem to have found the TV station that plays only shows that ran before 1972.  Gun Smoke, Mayberry, and Leave It to Beaver seem very reassuring as the antidote to stress.  Fox News brings on heart attacks.

Baltimore: Solutions

Really, what’s the problem in Baltimore?  And more important: what’s are some solutions?

There is plenty of blame to be put on everyone.  It is easy to get angry.  It is easy to take a stand of righteous indignation, no matter what your point of view. It’s easy to show where the other side is wrong, because in some ways they are. But, sadly, as always, the answer is more complex.

Who’s wrong?  Everybody and nobody.

The underlying problem is fear and misunderstanding.  That has been going on for three hundred years, and three thousand years.  It was written into the hallowed United States Constitution.  Slavery was allowed.  That meant some people could legally own and rule over the lives of others. 

From today’s point of view that was awful.  Back then it was common practice.  A few people opposed it, but certainly not a majority.  Really, it was an energy policy.

However, the enslaved Africans were not happy with it, not even then.  They feared the people who owned them, and the owners knew it.  So the fear and resentment began then. Fear and resentment is circular.  It breeds on itself and expands. 

The police in Baltimore were doing their job.  They had to deal with a population that didn’t trust them.  They had to be on guard.  They were afraid.  That fear, magnified by both stereotypes and experience, shaped their reactions. 

Those reactions created more resentment in the community. They feel mistreated because of prejudice, and they are.

Both parties were correct in their assumptions.  The cycle of fear, resentment and misunderstanding continued.

This is not new. Nor is it unique to America.  Last month I was in Israel and saw how the cycle of fear and misunderstanding in that part of the world goes back 3000 years.  It continues there today.  There are big fears over very small differences.  But there is no communication.  The different communities are isolated.  The fear increases because no one really knows the “other” as people.  Prejudice and stereotypes and misinformation take over.  The political system reinforces that. Politicians are good at splitting people into “interest groups.” And that is certainly true in Baltimore.

This has been so true for so long that it seems as if there is a genetic basis for it. It probably was adaptive a thousand, or even five hundred years ago to be fearful of people and tribes who were unknown.  Those strange young men swooping into your valley were not coming to teach meditation and yoga.  They wanted your gold, your crops, your women and your water.  They also were eager to cut off your head or make you a slave.

But fear and prejudice are not adaptive any more.  The people of the world overlap too much.  Our lives are too intertwined.  Our enemies have become our suppliers and our customers. Yet, fear, prejudice, hatred and vengeance still seem to be very widespread. It’s an easy sell, and our brains like easy.

What can be done?

We have to get to know each other as people, as individuals.  We have to see we are really all the same.  We have to care about each other instead of blaming each other. We have to build empathy based on our similarities, instead of fear based on our differences.

Sure? Easy to say, hard to do.

For example:

 Brown vs. Board of Education, 1951. A huge landmark case for racial equality.  Integrated schools.  A big step forward.  For a while, maybe, but that didn’t last.

The backlash drove white families into private schools and out of the cities.  Most cities now have badly funded, poorly run schools, filled with poor, almost all minority children.  Their skills are limited. Their networks are limited, and so is their future. The parents who pay for private schools don’t vote to pay taxes for the public schools. People who go to public schools don't pay taxes because they don't have the money.

The idea was to get people to know each other as people.  Instead now, whites and non-whites, rich and poor, religious and secular are now further apart.  We don’t know each other, but we have developed distorted ideas about how the “others” think. People get separated.  Fear and resentment develop.

Solution:  Close all private schools.  Integrate schools with an equal mixture of all levels of wealth.  Give the same education and same resources to all. All families would participate in developing, delivering and monitoring the same education. But mostly get children to feel safe and familiar with those who they now see as different. Fear declines, prejudice declines. America flourishes with contributions from everybody.

Likelihood of happening:  nil. 

Or

Mandatory two years of national service between high school and college.  Everyone

would be sent away from homes and put into small, diverse groups that work on community building and nation building projects together: building a school, building a day care, building a wireless network. Asking not what their country can do for them but……

This is really possible, but likelihood of happening : .00003%

Or

A family dinner exchange program.  Twice a month everyone would have dinner with some folks they didn’t know, who were different in some ways from themselves: racially, economically, professionally, culturally. Six families in six months, with dinner at each person’s place twice.  The costs would be shared unequally, or from the government.  Get to know new people, eat different food, open new pathways in your brain.

Another fun possibility that could be implemented in any city, county or state.

            Likelihood of happening: .00004%

            Why? Because it’s new and therefore feels risky. Because it’s so much easier to stick with the old way of thinking, to blame someone else, and to be frightened.

            If you don’t agree with me, come up with your own idea.  I like new ideas.  I’m an old dog that can learn new tricks.

“Look at me, Look at me, Look at me now.  It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how”

            --- The Cat in the Hat.

Changing History?

I am still thinking about my trip to Israel and still trying to figure out what upset me so much.  What is slowing becoming clear to me is that I have been deeply affected by learning how often the land upon which Israel now sits has been invaded and overtaken.  All of these conquerors came, raped, pillaged, and slaughtered the inhabitants, often enslaving those they didn’t kill, or else ruling them strictly and taking away a lot in taxes and restricting freedoms.

When the inhabitants rose up against whoever was the ruling power, sometimes, for a brief period, they drove them away.  But most times, and always eventually, the power came back stronger and raped, pillaged and murdered even more savagely. The Romans were especially good at that.  

Yes, this was history, but what is most troubling is that it is the present, and it seems to be the future.  It makes me wonder if there is really too much of a genetic basis that makes humans easily vulnerable to fear which leads to hate which leads to violence.

It seems to be so much easier to destroy than to build, or to stir up fear than to create understanding.  It is happening in Israel; it is happening in the U.S.  In many states, recent examples of which are Maine and Missouri,  the war on poverty seems to have turned into a war on the poor.  People who are broke and hungry are being demeaned, humiliated and even prosecuted.

The sense that someone who is different, or someone who makes us uncomfortable is evil and must be feared, has taken over our politics, or economics, and our worldview.    This should not be surprising because, in truth, as we can see from Israel, it has always been that way. 

What makes me sad, is that with all of our new technology, and all of the new knowledge that it has brought us, these more basic, primitive behaviors,  still so easily and quickly, become dominant. 

Yes, in some ways, there have been real improvements. While we have all these local, horrendous civil and religious wars going on, but the world seems to have learned to avoid the huge wars of the 20th century that killed millions of people.  Technology has given us a much greater awareness, and a much stronger reaction to some of the injustices that are happening. Abuses of power are being called out, and that will, eventually, lead to change.

So perhaps the tide is turning, and much of what is happening is the frightened reaction to those who are feeling left out or left behind.  Yet, as the tide moves out very, very slowly, it leaves so much wreckage behind.