Dr. Forbush Thinks

What motivates us? Is it the law of the jungle, animal instinct or practical planning for the future? Think of the next thing that you are planning to do after you finish reading this post. Why are you going to do it? There are several motivating factors that I can think of: curiosity, love, or survival. From my experience almost anything that you are planning to do, or even don’t intend to do are the result of some form of fear.

This is a major realization on my part. But this revelation hit me while I was thinking of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. Susan Cheever, the author of the book, “My Name is Bill: Bill Wilson--His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous” was being interviewed and she said that she believed that every addiction was based on fear. I hadn’t thought of addiction in this way before, but she went on to use the example of overeating. She said that personally she knows that she could easily go without eating, but at some point during the day she begins to think about something she would like to eat. Then, she puts it off, but the thought keeps coming back to her stronger and stronger each time. She begins to create a fear that she will never be able to eat whatever it is that she was considering earlier. Rationally this fear makes no sense at all, but to the addict the fear is very real and it won’t go away until it is acted upon.

So, I began to think a little more about fear. When we imagine fear, we often think of things popping out at us and surprising us. We think of sudden terror as we reach the summit of a roller coaster. But, there are other fears that are not so dominant. For example, the fear that you won’t make the rent payment, or the fear that you will be fired from your job. There is the fear of being beaten and robbed at gunpoint. There is the fear that someone you trust will do something against you because you trusted them. The list of fears goes on and on. In fact, if you think of something that you plan to do, it is most likely that you are going to do it out of the motivation of fear. People go to church, because they fear going to Hell. People follow traditional customs, because they fear that their family and relatives will look down on them if they don’t follow the traditions. People vote because they fear who will get in office if they don’t. People exercise because they fear death and sickness. People skip exercise because they fear that they will miss their favorite program on the TV or they fear the pain and exhaustion after the exercise.

The fears are not all equal, and that has a lot to do with how you deal with each fear. People who fear dark places will avoid dark places and plan what they do accordingly. People who fear crowds will do likewise. People who fear violence may carry a gun to protect themselves. But, one thing is certain; people do not deal with their fears rationally. This is because fear is an emotional response to the unknown. People can guess the future, but they can not know with certainty how the future will be. Nature has given us the ability to construct a scenario in our minds to predict the probability of something happening in the future, but this ability is often being challenged and the result continues to be unable to know the future.

Fear can make a person do strange things that they will be embarrassed about later. Fear can make you hold on to the car door handle with white knuckles when your daughter drives you down the street for the very first time. Fear can make you drink alcohol to relieve the fear. In understanding the global nature of fear it is obvious how alcohol, or drugs can become so addictive for some people. No matter what the fear is, enough alcohol will make you pass out and forget the fear. It also explains why drugs like LSD were never very addictive, your fears become supernatural under the influence of LSD.

What Susan Cheever also explained was why the spiritual aspect of Alcoholics Anonymous was the secret ingredient that helped members succeed where other methods did not. Spirituality brings into focus the big picture. You no longer feel that you need to control your fear. Instead, there is nothing to fear because there is something greater than your petty fear.

In fact, the point of religion in general tends to be a way to control fears by reminding us about God. Different religions do this in different ways. The authoritarian method is to tell us that God has a list of laws. If one follows God’s list of laws, then there is nothing to fear because God will take care of everything. The maternal loving method tells us that God created us and therefore he loves us as His son or daughter and we should feel comfortable in knowing that He is always there protecting us as a mother protects her children. Both methods aim to alleviate fear from our lives by telling us not to fear.

The authoritarian method ran into trouble even in Jesus’ time. The Jewish religion had many laws and they made life more difficult in some ways. People found themselves breaking the laws unavoidably from time to time and then they found themselves in fear again. So, the problem became if one breaks the law what will happen to them. Some people believed that they would be punished for breaking the laws in different ways. For example, the parents of the man born blind believed that their sin had caused the blindness of the man. Guilt and fear ran deep in the culture because following the list of laws proved nearly impossible and most people had broken them and they assumed that they could not be forgiven. Fear was back and religion was no longer the solution.


But, Jesus changed all that when he began to forgive the people. When the people began to feel forgiven their fears left them. Or, at least they lost the fear of being punished by God for breaking a law on the list. They could go back and begin to follow the laws once again with a clean slate. The power of forgiveness was able to overpower fear. Jesus brought salvation.

But, unfortunately there is an epilog to this story. Some of the followers of Jesus never really understood what Jesus had done. Some thought that He brought new or better laws, and if those laws were followed to the letter, then there would be no fear. But, these people did not learn the real lesson that Jesus had taught. A new list of laws would result in the same creation of fear over time as people continued to be human and make mistakes in their lives. Forgiveness is the salvation that Jesus brought, not new laws. The rationalization of fears by putting them in the proper order is what religion seeks, and realizing the power of God is the key to this reorganization. When one realizes this there is no longer a need to drink to forget ones fears. With proper fears put in proper order one can manage his or her life putting the emphasis on projects that will make a difference, instead of wasting time on fears that make little difference or may even be destructive to one’s life.

But, fear is powerful and leaders are always seeking power. Leaders should have the goal to lead the people for the common good, but given a little power these people sometimes demand more. Fear is one method in which leaders can guarantee more power. This is because people are mobilized by fear. Announcing a common threat will insure that the people will not only unite but also sacrifice personal liberty and material goods. Security is see as safety from an unknown threat. Leaders in quick response to a real threat can use this fear, but it is also used to consolidate power within the leadership. The truth is that this fear can be abused. But, fortunately people will gradually loose their fear and be able to respond to the leaders and take back their power. And it is time to do just that in November. Don’t forget to vote!




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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


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