What do you fear? Does it immobilize you? Does it move you to anger or irrationality? Fear can be a really dangerous thing, if we give into it. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his inaugural speech, “only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Fear has caused wars. The people of Germany, were convinced by Hitler, to fear the Jews. As a result, they were moved to eradicate them. It is easier to make someone fear something or someone than it is to make them hate that thing. Fear then manifests into hatred and anger. Fear prevents us from treating everyone as our equal. Some Americans fear immigrants and refugees, because they are told by the media that these people are unsafe, they are different, they will steal our jobs, etc. The media is so good at striking fear into people’s hearts. It is scary how far fear can drive someone. Fear is possibly the leading cause of gun ownership. People fear others, so they own guns to protect themselves.

Fear is used to control the masses. I’m not going to go into lots of conspiracies, but if our leaders and our media are able to make us fear something, we are more likely to look to them for protection. Right now, in this country, we are witnessing this happen with Donald Trump. He is using fear to drum up support from all those people who are afraid of immigrants from Mexico, afraid of refugees from Syria, and afraid of losing their money to socialism. Trump is not only fueling the fires of fear, he is creating new fears. He is telling people that Mexicans are criminals, rapists, and drug dealers. He is telling them that Syrian refugees could be ISIS in disguise. He is a modern day Hitler, convincing the masses to fear the outsiders or the minorities and to eradicate them. His tactics are so horrible, I’m starting to fear him.

What are the two worst fears? I’ll tell you. It isn’t arachnophobia or claustrophobia; it is xenophobia and racism. Xenophobia is the fear of the foreign or foreigner. This fear prevents people from ever leaving America. They fear that foreign people are dangerous, or god for bid different from them. This fear causes them to judge people based on stereotypes, because they have no real life examples to go off of. They believe what they are told or see on the news. To them, all Muslims are terrorists. They think all French people are snooty. These stereotypes make them hate these people out of fear.

The same goes for racism. Racism is the fear of people of a different race. Back in the 50’s there were videos about marijuana that told of how it turned black men into rapists and murderers. People feared them, because they looked different. As a result of that fear, they committed atrocious acts upon them. The same happened to the Native Americans, when the English arrived. They feared these natives, so they killed them. Fear makes people do horrible things.

What is the opposite of fear? Understanding! Acceptance! Education! If more people took the time to get to know someone different from them, they would have less fear. If people traveled to foreign lands and saw how similar we all are as humans, despite our differences, they wouldn’t fear them. If everyone had a friend that was a different color, different culture, different religion, they wouldn’t be so quick to judge all people of one race, religion, or ethnicity according to a stereotype. If people were educated about all cultures as being equal and all people as being equal, there would be no room for fear or hate. If we taught children from a young age to love everyone regardless of their differences, we would raise them to not have fear in their hearts. When we teach children and people in general to fear others, we are teaching hatred. We must teach love and acceptance.

Humans are not spiders or snakes, we should not fear them as such. We should not want to eradicate anyone based on their race, religion, or ethnicity. Trump is playing off of the lack of education of his constituents, in order to teach them fear and lead them to hatred. We need to get out there and educate the world (especially the U.S.) to know their neighbors, to accept them for who they are, and to welcome them with open arms. I know I sound like a kumbaya song around a campfire, but education and first hand experience with an absence of fear mongering could prevent wars. If we learn how to eradicate fear, maybe we could eradicate hatred.

“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear”- Gandhi