Fear Stalks N. America as Trump's Support Shows, Here's an Antidote That 'Changes Everything'

A few days ago the CBC published the article 'Canadians see Donald Trump's Muslim-ban idea not so differently from Americans, polls indicate' which explained that a poll by the Angus Reid Institute found that 33 per cent of Canadians strongly or moderately agree with Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." and a Post-ABC poll run at the same time concludes suggests that Trump's ban is supported 36 per cent of Americans. The respective polls also said that 59% of Republicans innthe US and 52% of Conservatives in Canada supported it.

Perhaps Canadian and American politics aren't so different after all. Apparently the residents of both countries not only share certain demographic and geographic realities but certain cultural and psychological traits too. Donald Trump is currently running away with the Republican nomination race in America because his bigoted fear mongering strikes a chord among the right-wing, especially the Evangelicals that dominate both the US Republican and Canadian Conservative parties.

Fear is a powerful evolutionary response that is hardwired into our reptilian brain by millions of years of experience. Fear has many uses, it can keep us out of danger and out of the jaws of predators. Fear is such a successful trait that it has been conserved by evolution since the mud first looked up. Fear's is so ancient, that our responses bypass the relatively slower decision making process of reason.

Fear's irrational sucess story, though still useful in car accidents or ?, can also be used by others to control us. Those swayed by the rhetoric of fear mongering are easily manipulated by anyone, or any set of ideas, that offers a simple panacea to these fears.

Fear is a powerful force that is created by the each of us internally, it is not an uncontrollable external force. When we feel that sinking feeling in our stomach it's our primitive brain, the limbic system including the hippo-campus and amagadyla, pumping adrenaline through us in aid of our immediate 'fight or flight' mechanism. Though difficult, with practice, a person can learn to ride the power of their fears. Remember the time when water was a frightening place in which to be immersed until you learned to use its buoyancy as a tool?

Unfortunately far to many in Canada, the US and beyond have allowed themselves to be controlled by their fear of 'other'. The antidote to this irrational fear of 'other' is the reality that there is no other, we are all in this together. This antidote to fear has the potential to unite us all - flora, fauna, microbes, minerals, fores and faeries alike - into knowing that we are, as well as being, part of one interconnected whole...this understanding would actually change everything including our irrational fear of others.