Steve Magness

Fear dominates our society. It’s right there in all of the political ads. It’s there on the news and as you scroll on Instagram. It’s there in our neighborhoods, where every Nextdoor post turns an unfamiliar person into a potential threat.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about what happens when so much of what reaches us is designed to make us feel threatened.

Why would politicians, or the larger machine we’ve created, want to invoke fear? Because it pushes us to a quick action to eliminate the feeling. On social media, it’s to post, retweet, or respond with righteous indignation. To make it feel like we are doing something. We hit that retweet button to feel something even though it’s a cheap action that makes no difference.

Fear can be a short-term motivator. But eventually, when we have a constant alarm demanding a response, with nothing seeming to change, we move from outrage to apathy. Eventually, we seem to give up.

A fear and outrage based society doesn’t just push us to survival and protection, it never trains that hopeful muscle up.

None of this fixes the country. But on an individual level, all of these small steps train that hopeful muscle and send the message you aren’t a dog stuck in the box.

Hope we have to build ourselves. Let’s get to it. One small step at a time.

-Steve