In 1933, in his first inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself..."--a quote now so iconic and repeated so often, it's something of a cliche. Nevertheless, Roosevelt's words in that speech are very relevant to our current situation. The sentence continues, "...nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

That's what we're suffering from right now.

We're caught up in this pandemic with no end in sight. The economy has crashed, schools are closed, people are facing evictions and bankruptcy because they can't work. There are some who blame local governments, not the virus. They say the restrictions and mandatory closings have had a far worse effect than the virus itself.

But states like Iowa that never implemented mandatory closings or stay-at-home orders have found that their economies are doing badly, too. Restaurants and theatres and bars and hair salons have all been open, but they're laying off workers or going out of business. The lights are on, but the customers don't come. They're too afraid. No one has restricted air travel, but air travel is down by 69 percent (in April it was 96 percent). Planes are empty or grounded and airlines are hemorrhaging money. People are afraid to travel. For every sneering skeptic who refuses to wear a face mask, twenty people don't want to leave their homes unless it's absolutely necessary.

Nothing is going to change that, at least not any time soon. Fear of disease is primeval; it's hard-wired into our DNA (and for obvious reasons). This is especially true for a new disease that doesn't follow the same rules we've become accustomed to.

I'm not minimizing the seriousness of COVID-19. We all have to take precautions. But there is a high price for living in fear, which Roosevelt understood very well. In 1933, the United States was in the deepest abyss of the Great Depression, which impacted other nations, as well. In the United States, government programs helped rebuild our nation into an industrial powerhouse. In Germany, Adolf Hitler's Third Reich exploited the people's fear and despair for another end.

There's never anything good about fear. People who are controlled by it can be easily manipulated. They'll act aggressively toward others who have done them no harm. They imagine threats where none exist and overreact to phantom slights. They'll band together with others who are afraid because at least then they don't feel alone. If someone tries to reassure them that their fear is groundless, they assume they're being lied to. It's only a small step from chronic fear to true paranoia.

I'm seeing social media devolve into arguments and trolling, and I'm seeing an epidemic of vandalism and thefts--especially people stealing and destroying campaign signs (both sides are getting equal attention). I'm seeing stories about people brawling, even shooting, over whether to wear face masks. (Asian countries where people have worn face masks for years--because of air pollution and because of epidemics--are utterly dumbfounded at Americans' belligerence about masks.) This is pure fear, and it's getting worse every day as we get closer to November 3.

The question is not whether there are legitimate things to fear. The question is whether we're going to allow ourselves to abandon reason, empathy, and the social contract and be ruled by negative emotions. Isn't part of growing up--the key element of growing up, in fact--learning not to let our negative emotions take over?

In his speech, Roosevelt said, "we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good."

If any leader said this today, would it be true?

Inanna Arthen