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Hi and welcome to my blog. I’m Jeff Aronson, TheFearMonsterSlayer. In this and future blogs I’ll share some simple, effective and fun tools for managing fear and anxiety. So, welcome aboard!

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THEFEARMONSTER OF LONDON

8/5/2014

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Londoners during the Blitz
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"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."--Franklin D. Roosevelt

Malcolm Gladwell, in his recent book, David and Goliath, describes a very interesting observation about how the British citizenry dealt with fear during the German Blitzkrieg bombing of London during World War Two. I really like Gladwell's books as they challenge conventional wisdom about why and how things happen. They're all on my recommended books list (They're also on THEFEARMONSTER'S banned books list).

In the years leading up to the war, the British government knew that the German Air Force would bomb London and that there was nothing they could do to stop it. The British military command predicted that a sustained bombing would kill an estimated 600,000 people, wound another 1.2 million and create mass panic.

Plans to build a massive network of underground bomb shelters were abandoned because it was feared that people would never come out of them. And several psychiatric hospitals were set up outside the city limits to treat what was expected to be a flood of psychological casualties.

In 1940 the attack began. For eight months, beginning with 57 consecutive nights of devastating bombardment, German bombers dropped tens of thousands of bombs and more than a million incendiary devices, fire bombs. Forty thousand people were killed, another forty-six thousand were injured, and a million buildings were damaged or destroyed.

But then an interesting thing happened. Every prediction about how Londoners would react was wrong. The panic never came! The psychiatric hospitals were switched to military use because no one showed up. Many women and children were evacuated to the countryside but people who needed to stay in the city mostly stayed. As the German assaults increased, authorities began to observe, to their astonishment, not just courage during the bombing but something closer to indifference.

People went on about their business, kids played in the streets and went to school and life went on pretty much as usual. It became astonishingly clear that the bombing didn't have the effect everyone thought it would. So why was that?

At the end of the war a study was done to solve the puzzle. It was found that the morale of the community depends on the reaction of the survivors. The so-called "near misses", people who feel the blast, are horrified by the destruction and carnage, may be wounded but survive, and are left with a powerful reaction associated with the bombing. They may continue to experience what's called post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

Then there are the "remote misses" who make up a far greater percentage of the population. People who hear the sirens, see the bombers overhead and hear the explosions. But the bomb hits some distance away. They survived the second or third time that happens, they experience a feeling of excitement tinged with a feeling of invulnerability. Their reaction is exactly the opposite of that of the "near misses" who are traumatized. A remote miss creates a feeling of invincibility.

In recollections of Londoners who lived through The Blitz, countless people described feeling happy and triumphant, exhilarated and invulnerable. One Londoner, who had been bombed out of his house two times, refused to be evacuated to the countryside. He said, "What and miss all this? Not for all the gold in China!"

The study concluded that  we are not only liable to fear but also afraid of being afraid. Conquering that fear produces exhilaration and a self-confidence that is "the very father and mother of courage." Soldiers going into combat of course fear dying or being maimed but right behind that is the fear of not showing courage and letting their buddies down.

Courage is not the absence of fear but doing something courageous in the face of fear. It's what we earn when we get through the tough times and realize they aren't so tough at all.

Next Time: FACING DOWN THEFEARMONSTER
 


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FEARMONGERING 2

7/7/2014

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"Be afraid. Be very afraid."--The Fly (1986 Film)
You've no doubt noticed that the lead-in TV news stories are almost always negative with a large amount of "alarming newspeak" thrown in. For instance, the three lead stories on ABC News a few nights ago were: 1) Swimmer attacked by Great White Shark off  LA beach. 2) Two commercial airliners in near-collision in the skies over Houston. 3) Devastating storms (almost a daily story now). And of course, increased airport security due to the deteriorating situation in Iraq and Syria and the "possibility" of suicide bombers coming to this country

"Television. The drug of the nation.
Breedin' ignorance and feedin' radiation."--The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.  

In my last post, Fearmongering 1, I talked about how Thefearmonster employs a vast sales force of Fearmongers to spread fear and I focused mainly on the media but with a brief mention of politicians. So let's look at how they and the government in general promote the spread of fear, both with the positive intent of protecting the public as well as manipulation to further some personal or political agenda.

9-11, with the relentless coverage of the collapsing Twin Towers, was a devastating emotional shock to the national psyche as well as to our own. What up until then had been a relative feeling of safety and security was ripped away in those few minutes of film coverage. Recent studies have concluded that some people have actually developed PTSD as a result of viewing those images over and over even though they were not personally involved.

Following the attacks, the Department of Homeland Security was created and along with it the color-coded threat conditions. Remember those? Does anyone even remember the color threat levels? What was the highest? I don't remember. And of course, beefed up security at airports with its passenger screenings. "The old color coded system  taught Americans to be scared, not prepared."--Rep. Bernie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) It was disbanded in 2011.

When I was a kid growing up in the 50's it was during a perceived threat of nuclear war with the Russians; people built bomb shelters and we used to have bomb drills in school. The fire drills had one alarm sound, bomb drills a different one. We'd get under our desks crouched on our knees with our arms clasped over our heads until the all-clear sounded. The only benefit I could see to this drill was that in a nuclear blast it made it easier to kiss your a__ goodbye.

There were also public service announcements on TV with instructions on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack and how to know if you were in a nuclear blast. First hint: There'd be a bright flash and you'd be instantly vaporized. I'm serious, they really put this stuff on TV. It was scary stuff and I remember being on the alert for bright flashes when I was outside.

So what can we do to protect ourselves from  THEFEARMONSTER's media blitz. Here's an antidote: We need to be informed and not immediately panic when we hear or see these stories but to take a breath and view them critically. This does require making the time and effort to investigate and gain more knowledge and a broader perspective from other information sources. Unfortunately, few of us have the time or make the effort to do so but it's well worth it.

I refer again back to Gavindebecker.com and his book, "The Gift of Fear" and how to analyze threats, whether from the media or government sources. And of course, Andrew Weil's News Fast. By doing these simple things, we can do a lot to lower fear and anxiety in our lives.

By the way, from low to severe threat the colors were green, blue, yellow, orange, RED! (We never got below blue or above orange.)

Next Time: MOVIES THEFEARMONSTER DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE
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    Hi and welcome to my blog. I’m Jeff Aronson, TheFearMonsterSlayer. In this and future blogs I’ll share some simple, effective and fun tools for managing fear and anxiety. So, welcome aboard!

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