The Audacity of Fear
Every time supremacy is threatened, the audacity of fear awakens and strikes back. Empathy keeps the audacity of hope alive and ends the pursuit of happiness. It delivers it.
For 8 years, the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama promoted and wielded the audacity of hope. It was that hope, but more importantly the audacity of talking about it, to demonstrate the impact of being audacious inspired our nation and our world in 2 ways.
There were the majority that were inspired to see a world where the system was somewhat malleable, and the system could be made better when intentionality was applied. The audacity of marginalized folk to dream bigger, for people to not only wish for equality but further the progress toward equity. I am a part of this audacious majority. I stood in a university gym in 2012 to bask in the words of hope and experience the audacity during an election rally with President Obama in Florida. I was chanting 4 more years with tears streaming down my face, with goosebumps pulling at my skin.
No where on our planet has humanity built a system that is equitable or just for all. What Barack and Michelle Obama demonstrated was that if we had the audacity we could progress The United States of America’s system towards a society that could be equitable. Their tool of choice was empathy, for themselves, for their tribe, and for the people that even opposed them.
When USA is compared to Finland or other countries that are happier, what key aspect that is not highlighted is that the countries that are “happier” or seemingly better systems are mostly homogenous. I believe the intention of comparison is to show public systems working and delivering positive outcomes for their people. However, these systems are not truly equitable. Racism, xenophobia, exists in these systems. In these systems the audacity of fear is dormant.
The second movement that was re-awakened was one driven by the opposite of audacity of hope. One fueled by the audacity of fear. There was a large population that reverted to their dormant fear of change, their fear of loss of power and control, but most importantly their fear of loss of supremacy. Audacity of fear is the audacity to not practice empathy, the audacity to maintain one’s supremacy by enraging their own fears. The audacity of fear is the basis of all systems of governing countries on our planet at this time. In some countries it is just dormant.
Let’s continue with the example of Finland which is ranked 3rd year in a row as the happiest country in the world. However racism isn’t eradicated. Let’s use LGBTQ+ rights as an example. From the equaldex.com screenshot below, Finland is still discriminating against trans people. Trans people can change their gender as long as they “sterilize” themselves. Gay people cannot donate blood, and conversion therapy is not banned. Adoption is not freely available. You can be part of the system if you give up some of your rights that others enjoy.
What leaders like Nelson Mandela, President Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., showed us was that heterogenous communities could achieve the dream of equity. The pursuit of happiness could be realized through equity and justice. That the pursuit is fruitful.
They showed us that supremacy can be eradicated.
I was born in India. We were taught about the hope we our country had fought for in our history classes. Our textbooks talked about how hope delivered the independence of India in 1947. But what it did not talk about was that the system that was established post independence was based on the audacity of fear. It was a transfer of supremacy from the colonizing Brits to 2 groups of people. The Hindus in India, and Muslims in Pakistan. The system could have been established where India and Pakistan was one country and the system was equitable. But the fear of lack of supremacy led to the creation of 2 countries where each group could establish their own supremacy.
European countries have not had to awaken this fear because their supremacy is not yet threatened. In USA, every time someone displayed the audacity of hope to challenge the supremacy, the audacity of fear awakened and fought back. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered when he showed the world that we could challenge supremacy. Senator Mitch McConnel made it his life’s legacy to block at all costs everything President Barack Obama did. The audacity of fear consistently fought back to crush the audacious display of success of hope.
Even when Ahmaud Arbery went on a jog with audacious hope of equality, the fear of loss of supremacy shot back. When Breonna Taylor was murdered in her home, the system did not deliver justice to her because it was driven by the fear of loss of supremacy. George Floyd was not given permission to breathe because the fearful wanted to show what they would do if their supremacy was threatened.
Every time a brave person supported Black Lives Matter, the audacity of fear came back with all lives matter (intentional use of lower case here). What we saw during the Capitol terrorist attack (I refuse to refer to it as a riot) of January 6, 2021 was that since the police did not support the insurrection, Blue lives stopped mattering to the people holding the very flag promoting it. In the new threat to supremacy they were willing to destroy their own system to preserve their supremacy. To preserve the audacity of fear.
What the treasonous Donald Trump did was not represent the people that felt unheard (please stop softening this) or left out of the conversation, he was the symbol of audacity of fear. He represented the resistance to loss of supremacy. The red MAGA hat is no different than the Nazi swastika or the confederacy flag. The Tea Party was the rise of this fear that became the Trump movement. The Tea Party was the audacity of fear response to Barack Obama’s vision to dethrone the supremacy.
The system is working, because it was designed to maintain the supremacy.
Change is driven by the audacity of hope. Stacey Abrams showed that supremacy can still be successfully challenged. We need to use empathy for ourselves first, but then for the people who are battling with the audacity of fear to help them eradicate this fear. Empathy for ourselves to keep having the audacity of hope. But empathy for others to show them that the fear is unfounded and is not helping them.
For the people who are afraid of their loss of supremacy, the audacity of hope is not going to marginalize you. It is going to include you. This movement is an inclusive movement. What Marin Luther King Jr. dreamt about was not a world where Black people were supreme, rather a world where all people had a sense of belonging. That was the dream. That is the dream.
We are reaching out to show you that an equitable and just world truly delivers the promise of happiness. Supremacy always maintains the pursuit of happiness without the realization of it, however the audacity of hope ends that pursuit, and truly delivers that happiness for all.
Be audacious, be hopeful, realize happiness. Use empathy to dethrone supremacy and eradicate fear.
