Europe and the United States have recently come down with a virulent case of fear. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where it began, and truthfully, it doesn’t matter. In any event, xenophobia has swept the First World, and politicians have been quick to use it to their advantage. The European Union will soon be missing a member, and in the U.S., an orange ninny has a semi-realistic shot at the highest position of power in the nation on a platform of braggadocio and bigotry. How could this have happened? What are we all so afraid of?
In case you missed it, Britain has decided it will no longer be a part of the EU. Brexit campaigners, making good use of misinformation, fear mongering, and xenophobia, garnered 52 percent of the British vote. The demographics that were disproportionately likely to vote “leave”: the aging and the less educated.
On this side of the Atlantic, those same demographics are voting for our homegrown fearmongerer. The ethos of his campaign — making America great again — is designed to evoke a fear that perhaps America is no longer great. He’s quick, of course, to tell us what’s to blame: It’s the immigrants. And the Muslims. And the Hispanics. And of course, the losers who don’t want him to win this November.
A proper campaign of fear needs a scapegoat: someone or something to point the finger at to take attention away from the merits of the candidate or policy. The Brexit gang and Trump have played those cards to perfection. In Trump’s case, going out of his way to disparage women, Muslims and Hispanics doesn’t seem to have dented his momentum because his campaign has never been about him: It’s been about fear of the outside.
It’s worth taking a step back to think about all of this. The world is far from a perfect place. Just within the United States, socioeconomic stratification, institutional racism and overtaxed infrastructure all pose threats. However, those aren’t things to be afraid of; in the end, fear has never solved a problem. Fear, almost universally, provokes a fight-or-flight response. Britain chose flight, and the effects have already been staggering. Trump advocates fighting: We’ll expulse the Muslims, build our wall and fight anything “un-American.” Both strategies are doomed: Fight-or-flight decisions inherently miss the big picture for the sake of the short term.
What solves problems in today’s world is thoughtfulness and collaboration. That’s why diversity is important. That’s why planning is important. That’s why Trump and his savior complex are doomed. And in the end, that’s why fear shouldn’t have a place in politics.
I’ll leave off with a bit of advice from Samuel Shem’s seminal work The House of God. As a newly minted doctor, in the event of cardiac arrest under your watch, the first step is always to take your own pulse — overcome the fear, then act. Before you vote this November, do the same.
Jack Siglin is a senior physiology and neurobiology major. He can be reached at jsiglindbk@gmail.com.
