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“The frightening things we do sometimes when we’re afraid to be afraid.” - Dr. Praetorius from ‘People Will Talk’ (J. Mankiewicz, 1951) I have a fear of heights. I don’t know when it arrived, but I didn’t always have it. I didn’t have it as a child. I didn’t have it in college. 1/13

But one day I was in a high rise building and noticed that I felt tremendous anxiety, panic even. Weirdly (and conveniently) this doesn’t apply to flying, which I can handle. Does that make sense? Not at all. Which is the point of this little essay: fear is not reasonable. 2/13

This was driven home when I was watching the movie “Vanilla Sky” the other day. Its final scene takes place on the roof of a very, very tall Manhattan skyscraper. Even though I was sitting at home, safely at ground level… I felt anxiety just looking at the screen. 3/13

No matter how much I tried to convince myself that there was absolutely nothing for me to be fearful of… it wasn’t working. At a certain point I had to avert my eyes. 4/13

My rational faculties simply couldn’t overcome whatever was activating those far more ancient structures in my brain that were convinced that I was in mortal peril. 5/13

That’s not even the worst of it: I once experienced acrophobia when just READING about people at great heights: there’s a passage in Michael Chabon’s “The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” that takes place on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. 6/13

Bonkers, right? For all my attempts to be a rational person, I’m vulnerable to this ludicrous meshugaas. 7/13

But when I think of common fears that are manipulated by demagogues and which govern the behavior of millions of people, I despair. Because you can’t even begin to address a problem unless you see it as a problem, and many fears are easily rationalized and defended. 9/13

Especially if they are shared by your peers, and spoonfed to you by your leaders and media. And even if acknowledged, is it even possible to use reason to shake people out of their fear of Black people? Their fear of immigrants? Homophobia and transphobia? 10/13

The contempt that Trump supporters have for liberals? They make a big show of laughing at us, but at the root of their hatred is fear. 11/13