If aliens landed on the earth today, they would think we are a hysterical lot of people. Our society is constantly afraid of this or that, and the media plays into these hysterical fears. In his book, Scared To Death: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth, Christopher Booker outlines a host of these fears. We fear the flu, global warming, climate change, AIDS, SARS, COVID-19, the food we eat, and the list goes on.
The hysteria about swine flu some years ago is a case in point. In 1976, it turned out to be non-existent. Yet, the media and U.S. government instilled enough fear of impending doom that many Americans lined up to get the latest shot. Many found the vaccine to have tragic consequences.
Other predictions of the following infectious disease disaster are usually no worse than the regular seasonal flu. Often, the hysteria associated with the perception of an impending event results in more damage than the event itself. Remember YK2?
The world today is being turned topsy-turvy over the global warming/climate change theme to such a degree that logic is going out the window, and where even scientists are distorting and fudging their studies.
Some don’t live their lives to avoid the genuine but low-risk threat associated with an event. Occasionally, someone overseas says, “You live in Australia? I would never live there because of the snakes.” So, how real is the threat of snakes?
Between 2000 and 2016, 35 people died of snake bites. That is an average of two people a year. Of the 35, seven died because of attempting to pick up the snake. So the average is even less than two a year. Between 5 and 20 people die each year from lightning strikes in Australia, so which is the greater risk?
However, some sensible care needs to be applied. There are snakes around our home adjacent to a golf course. Sometimes, snakes venture on the course, such as the one below on a green; they are easily visible and usually scurry off into the bush.
When walking through the bush, it’s prudent to wear shoes and long pants, not thongs or shorts. The snakes are more fearful of you, but they may lash out at you if you disturb their habitat.
Far outweighing these statistics are road deaths. It doesn’t make sense to fear snakes and then get into a car where your chance of death is many times greater.
As a health care provider, I see some people constantly in fear that they will contract this or that condition. Just walking through the supermarket the other day, I was struck by several people still walking around with masks, some so poorly worn that there were significant gaps at the sides.
Let’s face it: much of medicine and its associated media releases instil the emotion of fear in people. I can remember going through my chiropractic studies, and we were doing a year-long course in pathology; every time we studied another disease and its symptoms, I thought perhaps I had it. When you’re engrossed in and focused on disease, there is a greater likelihood that you will manifest something you fear.
There are two ways to live your life: one in a state of fear and the other using common sense, trust, and faithful courage. What do I mean by authentic courage? First, we need to put fear in its proper place.
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