The Fear of Being Erased/Replaced- Criticism of Modern Extremism

There is a fear that some people are trying to replace others, to erase them. There are rightwingers that fear Jews will replace them, that non-white people will replace white people and Christians and others. There are leftwingers that fear trans people, gay people, countless others, the "marginalized" or others are being erased by conservative politicians and Republicans. There are other fears as well, and there are differences about them, as different as the people who harbor these fears. It's the nature of views and opinions, likes and dislikes that no two of them are exactly the same. Such is with fear and paranoia; no two people harboring such fear will react exactly the same way.

Let me first say that there likely are some people, powerful people that do want to erase and replace the "undesirables." The fear of genocide is real, because the Holocaust was real. Several times in history the Jewish people have faced such persecution, not just by Nazi Germany. There are people like Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger who wanted to exterminate black people using abortion and birth control. In modern times, this was in an era of popular eugenics when fears of overpopulation and that marriage and having children among mixed-race couples would lead to the destruction of the human race. There are some who believe that if gay and lesbian couples are allowed to have children, the world will somehow become gay and mankind won't be interested in having children.

You know, that's enough examples. These are all paranoid, delusional fears. But have you noticed a cycle? People fear the Jews, so they tried to exterminate the Jews because they were afraid the Jews would exterminate them. Likely using their magical, shapeshifting powers. Yes, these people actually believe Jews can shapeshift and live on money. Conspiracies about Jews are incredibly vast; they're an old civilization, one of the oldest on the planet and the fact they've endured so much is a testament to the strength of faith and will to survive. These are just people and they all have their stories.

The Nazis used the fear of Jews to justify the persecution of the Jews. They used the fear of being exterminated in their attempt to exterminate an entire population. Six million Jews and others considered "undesirable" died in the Holocaust or were sterilized. Homes were taken, businesses were destroyed, communities suffered some of the most horrific devastation in human history. Too many were indoctrinated by the Nazi philosophy and vilified people, bought into the fear and allowed the machine of genocide to work more smoothly. The Holocaust was the first industrialized mass murder, industrialized genocide, science and research used for the specific purpose of exterminating human beings. One of the most horrible things in human history and it was as regular as clockwork, they tried to make it as efficient as possible.

So, fear of this happening actually enabled the modern version of it to happen faster. Bureaucracy can kill more effectively than disease and war combined. War and disease thrive by utilizing our society and its bureaucracy to become more effective and more efficient. It is fear, however, that truly enables it. It turns people against one another, it causes societies to crumble, we are a global civilization and we rely on one another... when we stop trusting each other, when we are pitted against one another, things get worse for all of us. And now, we are more divided than ever.

With this in mind, I feel it is important to address that primal, greatest of fears: the fear of being erased.

Let me assure you that if you can read this, you exist. You are always going to exist. You are here, you can't simply vanish from existence. Even in death, your body remains as do your actions and the impact you made in life. I'm not going to address religion, though my personal beliefs on that matter are easy to find. Either way, you're here. Worrying about your existence is a privilege of existing. Someone trying to erase you, someone trying to erase another group of people from history, from the world, that someone is insane. It is insanity to attempt to erase a person, much less an idea or the impact a person had, their history, to attempt to bury them. It is impossible and more than that, self-destructive and paradoxical because you would erase part of yourself in the process.

If you attempt to erase someone, you also attempt to erase yourself. It is nothing but destructive to want something to be destroyed. If you hate someone, what you should want is for them to change... and you start creating change by changing yourself. Changing how you see them will change your view of them, change your perception and your perception of reality is changed. Reality is changed.

I have examined the philosophies of the far-right and far-left extremists. I criticize the far-left far more than the far-right because it's more difficult and more important to do so. The Left has many things that are correct, many grievances; they are the party of reform, usually, and it's easy to say that things need improvement. The Right has always had the harder job of preventing things from getting worse, keeping traditions alive and fighting the battle against time. Riding the wave of change is easier than standing against it, but some waves must be braced against regardless of devastation. We must rebuild when they subside.

Both the far-right and far-left promote the fear that they and those they advocate for or represent will be erased or replaced. Is it possible? In a way, yes; we could all die from any number of things, everyone on Earth simultaneously. What the Left and Right are doing is using this fear to manipulate people against their opposition. In essence, they are both behaving like Nazis using the fear of being erased in their goals to erase or gain leverage over their enemies. Trying to bury information is not as easy as it was because of the invention of the internet- much harder to burn every copy of a book now when there are so many digital backups.

But, we have the bomb. Nukes could erase all life as we know it quite quickly. That is a reality. However, you have lived with this reality thus far... and you live with many other realities as well.

Courage is not the absence of fear but the will and bravery to continue with minimal affect on your actions. Fear is natural and a part of life, letting it control you is not. It's okay to be afraid of things. Being a human, being an intelligent, rational human means letting your wisdom and higher thinking, your experience, skills and knowledge lead you to the right conclusion and then use the will to act rather than let panic and instinct control how you react. It is easy to do this when you are not thinking about said fear, a lot harder when that fear is present, when we are threatened and our body's adrenal system is working to get us out of perceived danger.

To summarize a bit:
1. The fear of being erased/replaced is real and used by extremists, the far-right and far-left to manipulate people to sometimes disastrous results.
2. Attempting to erase/replace people, to commit genocide or such destructive acts is inherently self-destructive and irrational.
3. Fear is natural, unique to everyone who feels it and is a part of life.
4. Succumbing to fear is bad and leads us to make irrational choices and can lead to irrational actions.
5. Courage is the ability to act rationally in the presence of fear.

Fear is a good thing when it leads to reasonable caution. Caution, concern, these are good things in the proper amounts. Too much of any good thing is a bad thing. Too much fear leads to paranoia, delusion and panic.

So, how do we get over the fear of being erased and/or replaced? As I said in the beginning, fear is unique and so must be the response. We all get over and reconcile our worries and fears in different ways. But nothing can stop the fact that you are here right now, you are irreplaceable, unerasable. The uniqueness of your own fears is another way in which you are unique, part of what makes the world what it is right now.

Your fear can be part of the solution to your fear. By facing it, accepting it and rationalizing it, we overcome it.

I have dealt with this fear as well. The fear of being censored and unable to express myself, unable to convey my thoughts and feelings is one of the reasons I have advocated for freedom of speech and ideas. Even I have to understand there are exceptions to everything; it seems to be a fact of the universe that nothing is ever one-hundred percent certain. I accept this reality and I take the next step, I keep writing anyway.

I accept things, I accept reality and I stop worrying about it. I decide what to do about it, I see my choices more clearly. I choose to keep writing for myself, not for anyone else.

That is the final lesson of fear: no matter what it is, fear alone is not reality. It has no real power over you unless you give it power. When you accept it, you overcome it and can see the reality that much more clearly. No matter how big that fear is, you can acknowledge it, accept it and overcome it, act in spite of it. Act rationally. Because, as one man who was instrumental in defeating the Nazis said,

In the event the link above breaks at some point, it's a quote from FDR. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt