The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The
line is often credited to Winston Churchill, the master of the rousing
speech. In truth, Franklin Roosevelt (or rather his aide Raymond Moley)
coined the phrase for his inaugural address in 1933,
as America tried to drag itself out of depression: “Let me assert my
firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. The modern politician has forgotten Roosevelt’s words. He prefers to play on fear—fear
that prevents sensible action, and never inspires it. In America, many
say we need the death penalty to prevent crime, thereby distracting us
from demanding restrictions on guns, a wise drug policy, or adequate
education. We are taught to fear terrorism to such an extent that we end
up forfeiting our liberties, even if the chance of it affecting our
lives is infinitesimal. We are told to fear losing our jobs to
immigrants, rather than to the powerful who destroy the economy. Fear escalates in inverse proportion to
experience. So white people in the white-flight suburbs of American
cities fear crime far more than do black citizens in the city centres—because of, not despite, the fact that the suburban white is far less likely to be a victim. We spend hours catastrophising horrors
that will never come to pass. Meanwhile, we are frozen most solid by our
fear that we won’t succeed. We are so averse to failure that we ensure
before we begin that nothing will ever be achieved. One of many examples
came at Guantánamo Bay. Over several years, I cannot recall a single
strategy that really harmed our efforts to get the authorities to act
within the law (even when one attorney dropped his trousers at a press
conference in Yemen, in an ill-advised effort to illustrate how
detainees were being humiliated). But some of the lawyers who joined our
coalition were devoted to dithering, constantly worrying that a
particular action would backfire. As a result, they achieved little and
prevented others from accomplishing a great deal. Ultimately, and most pointlessly, we fear that which we can neither understand nor amend. So our fear of death impedes us from fully living life. - Clive Stafford Smith From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, September/October 2012