My friend and Franciscan friar, Dan Horan, recently wrote a column about fear in our culture. He makes easy connections to the political craziness of our times, the economic fears many folks rightly seem to entertain and the numerous other maladies that can assault us. There is no reason simply to rehash his arguments and points. Rather what I want to lift us is a quotation he uses from Martha Nussbaum, a contemporary popular writer in philosophy.
Actually, what I want to share are some thoughts from the neuroscientist, Joseph LeDoux. LeDoux makes an interesting distinction between fear and anxiety. He suggests there is both a physiological and psychological dimension to both of these. And then LeDoux is quoted. “Fear can, like anxiety, involve anticipation, but the nature of anticipation in each is different: in fear the anticipation concerns if and when a present threat will cause harm, whereas in anxiety the anticipation involves uncertainty about the consequences of a threat that is not present and may not occur.” I would like to unpack this amazing sentence and then see how the idea of hope can be brought to address it.
The first point LeDoux makes is both fear and anxiety presupposes anticipation. As I think about my experiences with both fear and anxiety, I would agree. In both cases there is something in or about the future that provokes the fear or anxiety. Importantly, both fear and anxiety are about the future. There is something out there---impending---that causes me to be afraid or anxious. It---whatever it is---has not happened, but I anticipate it will. And in my case, “it” typically feels fairly close---it is imminent.
I was intrigued that LeDoux says the anticipated “it” causes different kinds of anticipation in the case of fear and anxiety. With respect to fear, anticipation “concerns if and when the present threat will happen.” This distinction is helpful. In the first place, I learn that what I fear does not always assume it will happen. The basis of fear is that it---the threat---will happen. It is easy to think about the multitude of things I have feared---health issues, issues with my kids, the list can be endless. The anticipation which feeds the fear is that the threat will happen. And if and when the threat happens, what kind of harm will inevitably be caused?
The anticipation of anxiety, on the other hand, focuses more on uncertainty. The anticipation of anxiety still has a potential threat in the future. But the threat is not yet real. It is not present. In fact, it may not occur. In this case, there is not real “it” yet. Martha Nussbaum says that “anxiety is a more diffuse experience of concern…” This matches how I have often differentiated the two. In this sense, anxiety is similar to rage, which is a more differentiated experience than anger.
Having described anxiety as more differentiated allows us to understand it when Nussbaum describes fear as some that “needs a particular target or object.” This is another way of saying that our fears are specific and focused. For example, we can say that we fear we will get cancer or that our kid will be in a car wreck. What we fear may or may not happen, but we fear the harm it will cause if and when it happens. Fears have focus and anxiety is diffuse.
But there is hope. That sounds like the punch line of a joke! Fortunately, it is not a joke; it is real. Hope is the antidote to both fear and anxiety. Hope is real. I have written elsewhere that hope because it is always possible. Like fear and anxiety, hope is an issue of the future. Hope is always not-yet. But it always offers us the possible. Of course, hope is never a guarantee. Hope is not automatic. Hope is different than what we might wish for. Hope is powerful because it spares us despair.
There are some good reasons for us to opt for the antidote of hope over fear and anxiety. For example, studies show that about 80% of the things we fear never happen. I don’t even have to hope for that. It is already true. So that means I only have to hope for 20% of the things I fear or an anxious about. Of the 20% of the stuff I am anxious about or fear, most of it would not be that bad if it really happened. And I could survive---and perhaps grow---from everything I am anxious about or fear. There is the real place to put the hope.
Hope is powerful because it addresses my situation in all cases. Hope does not say I will never be anxious or have fear. I am human and likely I will experience these two. But hope says they will not do me in. In fact, in most instances what will happen is I will survive and, potentially, thrive.
And hope is always my choice. If I let anxiety or fear have their way, there will be no hope. But I can always choose to hope. I can nurture and cultivate hope. I can let it sit next to my anxiety and fear and modify their threat. Finally, if I can invite God into the hope and let it be spiritual, too, then it garners even more power.
All this allows me to be not anxious and don’t be fearful, because there is always hope.
Actually, what I want to share are some thoughts from the neuroscientist, Joseph LeDoux. LeDoux makes an interesting distinction between fear and anxiety. He suggests there is both a physiological and psychological dimension to both of these. And then LeDoux is quoted. “Fear can, like anxiety, involve anticipation, but the nature of anticipation in each is different: in fear the anticipation concerns if and when a present threat will cause harm, whereas in anxiety the anticipation involves uncertainty about the consequences of a threat that is not present and may not occur.” I would like to unpack this amazing sentence and then see how the idea of hope can be brought to address it.
The first point LeDoux makes is both fear and anxiety presupposes anticipation. As I think about my experiences with both fear and anxiety, I would agree. In both cases there is something in or about the future that provokes the fear or anxiety. Importantly, both fear and anxiety are about the future. There is something out there---impending---that causes me to be afraid or anxious. It---whatever it is---has not happened, but I anticipate it will. And in my case, “it” typically feels fairly close---it is imminent.
I was intrigued that LeDoux says the anticipated “it” causes different kinds of anticipation in the case of fear and anxiety. With respect to fear, anticipation “concerns if and when the present threat will happen.” This distinction is helpful. In the first place, I learn that what I fear does not always assume it will happen. The basis of fear is that it---the threat---will happen. It is easy to think about the multitude of things I have feared---health issues, issues with my kids, the list can be endless. The anticipation which feeds the fear is that the threat will happen. And if and when the threat happens, what kind of harm will inevitably be caused?
The anticipation of anxiety, on the other hand, focuses more on uncertainty. The anticipation of anxiety still has a potential threat in the future. But the threat is not yet real. It is not present. In fact, it may not occur. In this case, there is not real “it” yet. Martha Nussbaum says that “anxiety is a more diffuse experience of concern…” This matches how I have often differentiated the two. In this sense, anxiety is similar to rage, which is a more differentiated experience than anger.
Having described anxiety as more differentiated allows us to understand it when Nussbaum describes fear as some that “needs a particular target or object.” This is another way of saying that our fears are specific and focused. For example, we can say that we fear we will get cancer or that our kid will be in a car wreck. What we fear may or may not happen, but we fear the harm it will cause if and when it happens. Fears have focus and anxiety is diffuse.
But there is hope. That sounds like the punch line of a joke! Fortunately, it is not a joke; it is real. Hope is the antidote to both fear and anxiety. Hope is real. I have written elsewhere that hope because it is always possible. Like fear and anxiety, hope is an issue of the future. Hope is always not-yet. But it always offers us the possible. Of course, hope is never a guarantee. Hope is not automatic. Hope is different than what we might wish for. Hope is powerful because it spares us despair.
There are some good reasons for us to opt for the antidote of hope over fear and anxiety. For example, studies show that about 80% of the things we fear never happen. I don’t even have to hope for that. It is already true. So that means I only have to hope for 20% of the things I fear or an anxious about. Of the 20% of the stuff I am anxious about or fear, most of it would not be that bad if it really happened. And I could survive---and perhaps grow---from everything I am anxious about or fear. There is the real place to put the hope.
Hope is powerful because it addresses my situation in all cases. Hope does not say I will never be anxious or have fear. I am human and likely I will experience these two. But hope says they will not do me in. In fact, in most instances what will happen is I will survive and, potentially, thrive.
And hope is always my choice. If I let anxiety or fear have their way, there will be no hope. But I can always choose to hope. I can nurture and cultivate hope. I can let it sit next to my anxiety and fear and modify their threat. Finally, if I can invite God into the hope and let it be spiritual, too, then it garners even more power.
All this allows me to be not anxious and don’t be fearful, because there is always hope.
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