The Dangers of Fear and Anger

One rule I learned over the years from personal experience is that you should never make decisions based on the motivations of fear or anger. This tends to lead to some very bad decisions. Things tend to work out much better in the long run when you use compassion and respect as the main factors motivating your final decisions.

There was an interesting article in the recent edition of Newsweek on the role fear plays in our politics and elections. It’s an unfortunate fact that some politicians can successfully use fear to get elected or to promote their policies. This has a serious danger of leading to some very bad decisions.

“… fear tends to overrule reason… [it] hobbles our logic and reasoning circuits. That makes fear far far more powerful than reason”

The article goes on to say that:

“And when a candidate reminds voters of their fears about one issue, it can have a powerful spillover effect: Fear that you cannot provide for your family because of an economic downturn can translate into hatred for immigrants”

So here’s the lesson for today – on a personal level do not let fear or anger run your life or drive your decisions. And on a national level do not let fear or anger drive your policy or decide your elections. Here's to hoping that in the coming elections the politics based on a vision of cooperation and compassion win out over those based on a vision of fear and anger. Experience from the last several years tells us that the later motivations tend to lead to some very bad outcomes, and I think people are open to a change.