My email said I should know
this today:
...that fear is one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. Bertrand Russell said that, and he was right. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross said, "Fear and guilt are the only enemies of man." She was right, too. And Franklin Roosevelt famously said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
When I think of cruelty, I specifically think of those people with whom I have come in contact who have been cruel to animals. I also think of people I have read about who have abused children in some way. That is the kind of cruelty I am thinking of right now, and it was NOT fueled by fear. It was fueled by many things: lack of empathy, lack of feelings, an inability to imagine or understand suffering inflicted on others in a personal way, anger and an inability to control impulses and in many cases a complete lack of intelligence coupled with hostility and a
desire to cause pain. The wanting to CAUSE fear seems more appropriate to me than the perpetrator
having fear
Ross, I am sure, was probably speaking of people's universal fear of death, as that is her area of expertise. When she speaks of fear and guilt as being the ONLY enemies of man, I beg to disagree as well. There are many enemies of man, most especially his willing suspension of intelligence and his preoccupation with self.
And as far as Roosevelt coming out with "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," I would just like to say that it is always easier for one esconced in a mansion like the White House as the head of a nation to look down on people going through extreme unemployment during a depression and say something like that and say that and add that their difficulties concerned “only material things.” Woo hoo Franklin. That would mean FOOD, hey!
That is the trouble when people tell you how you should face life. They have no idea what it is like to live in your circumstances with your issues. They come up with all these catch phrases that sound pretty but really don't mean much.
Okay, rant over.

