Almost every human being has a natural fear of death. That fear is a key to our survival as individuals and as a species. There is a rare condition, called Williams syndrome, which is a genetic disorder with number of symptoms. Children and adults who have this syndrome love other people, and are literally pathologically trusting. They have no social fear. Researchers theorize that this is probably because of a problem in their limbic system, the part of the brain that regulates emotion. There appears to be a disregulation in one of the chemicals (oxytocin) that signals when to trust and when to distrust.

For most of us, however, fear is a normal and useful part of life. It keeps us from engaging in behavior which can cause injury or death. It helps us to make wise decisions in social situations. An appropriate dose of fear can keep a person from getting into a car with a drunk driver, from crossing a busy street without the protection of a traffic signal, from going too close to the edge of a cliff, and from a host of other dangers.

Most human beings have systems to regulate their fear that allow them to use the emotion in a way that enhances life. There are numerous stories of people overriding their fear for great good. We have stories of soldiers in battle risking their own safety and even their own lives in order to protect others. We know of parents sacrificing their lives to save a child. There is a human capacity to both experience and to overcome fear.

There are, however, a host of human disorders that result in inappropriate responses to fear. In addition to Williams syndrome, in which fear is not experienced, there is an opposite condition, paranoia, in which there person experiences anxiety and fear to the point of irrationality and delusion. To put it simply, extreme paranoia is fear that exists when no threat or danger is present. There are many different degrees of paranoia. Simple phobias are irrational fears that can cause someone to avoid a particular activity, but may not disrupt an entire life. Full blown paranoia often includes false accusations and a general distrust of others that can be debilitating.

There are also types of fear that occur when danger is present, but which produce an irrational response to the danger. Recently there have been several studies of a parasite that suppresses fear of cats in rats. The parasite literally causes the rat to engage in self-destructive behavior in order to complete its own life cycle. This same parasite can infect humans and has been linked to aggressive driving and other self-destructive behavior.

It appears that our fear can save us from danger, but that it also can drive us towards danger as well.

Another irrational fear, labeled as a phobia in psychological research, is xenophobia - the fear of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange. The Oxford English Dictionary defines xenophobia as “deep-rooted, fear towards foreigners.” Xenophobia has its roots in the fear of death. A person feels that others, especially those who are different, somehow present a threat to one’s continued existence. Most people are able to manage their fears in such a way as to be able to overcome them in order to discover that difference can be enriching as well as frightening. Sometimes facing and overcoming one’s fears can open up new possibilities for meaning. Stepping out of one’s comfort zone can be a deeply enriching experience.

Public events can cause fear to be expressed in wildly different ways. Some people react rationally, others react in irrational manners. Major events, such as attacks by terrorists can inspire both courage and fear and result in the demonstration of a wide variety of responses, some of which are helpful, others which cause harm.

Despite the fact that some people are endowed with courage and the ability to overcome fear, most of us experience a loss of control when extreme fear is present.

And so we find ourselves in the midst of a kind of flight or fight free for all in the wake of recent terror attacks. As a nation, we seem to be unable to manage our own terror. Whereas some threats have historically produced unity, such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at the beginning of the United States entry to World War II, other threats produce disunity and even disfunction.

The goal of terrorists is to cause disfunction. They believe that a single act can have an increased impact because people will literally become dumb with fear.

In the wake of the San Bernardino shooting, a terrorism expert named Jessica Stern wrote the following wise words in The New York Times:

“If we are to prevail in the war on terrorism, we need to remember that the freedoms we aspire to come with great responsibilities. And these responsibilities involve not just fighting terrorists, but also managing our own terror.”

She writes of terror management theory:

“The theory says that when people are reminded of their mortality — especially if the reminder doesn’t register consciously, as happens after a brutal act of terror — they will more readily enforce their cultural worldviews. If our cultural worldview is xenophobic, nationalistic or moralistic, we are prone to become more so. Hundreds of experiments, all over the world, have confirmed these findings.”

The problem is that it can affect not only individuals, but individuals can cause others to be affected as well. Applying Stern’s theory, then, it is understandable that presidential candidate Donald Trump has become a caricature of himself. He is managing his own fear of death by becoming even more certain of his worldview. Tragically his worldview is xenophobic. More tragically, he has a really big megaphone with which to amplify his particularly hateful way of coping with his fear.

As dangerous as is his worldview, there are many who turn to the comfort of blanket beliefs in the face of danger. Whenever any one of us wants to assume that all people in any category, whether they be all Muslims or all NRA-members or all people suffering from mental illness, we increase the impact of the terrorist’s attacks.

The answer lies not in more fear, but rather in reaching out. Xenophobia is countered by acts of curiosity and neighborliness. Community is strengthened by diversity.

May we learn not only to resist terrorists, but also to manage our own fears.

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