The Takeover of COVID-19

Fear is contagious

In my last story, we discussed the progression that fear takes as it grows into fanaticism. As a review, we said that it begins as a misunderstanding of a certain piece of reality. The misunderstanding becomes an ideology, which then grows into an all-consuming perspective and becomes a weapon.

Fear breeds that which kills love.

If that was the end of the story, we could very easily make that manageable. But that is not the end at all. This fanaticism is only the beginning.

Once someone has reached the stage of being a fanatic, they begin to berate others with their ideas and actually start down a path of trying to spread their fear and fanaticism to others.

Because they have lost the ability to show love and compassion, they begin to prey on other people’s fears as a means to feed their own and make others scared in the same way they are.

What starts as fear of tyranny due to being told to wear a mask at the grocery store becomes something much greater, and in some ways even more dangerous.

Other people are concerned about wearing a mask as well, but not because they are concerned about the government stealing away our constitutional rights. They have asthma or some kind of breathing problem and are simply concerned that covering their mouth and nose will inhibit their breathing. That doing so will possibly trigger an asthma attack or some other health-related complication.

The man scared of tyranny seizes this fear and finds his own experts that validate the other fear. Not only is being told to wear a mask tyrannical, but it is proof that the government is deliberately trying to hurt us to meet their goals of control. As a result, other “experts” chime in with “research” they have done on the subject. A doctor in some random country has a patient who wore a surgical mask to the store and passed out due to a reduction in oxygen to the brain leading to the theory that wearing the mask is what caused the fainting spell. Even if this is not the end result of the doctor’s tests, the story spreads that a woman with asthma wearing a mask fainted.

So the story spreads, catching the attention of other people who have the same concern and it keeps spreading until we have a whole movement devoted to not wearing masks.

Other fears spread the same way.

I am very much scared of wasps. Absolutely terrified. I know that, for the most part, wasps are not terribly aggressive. Yes, they sting. And I have been stung by them a couple of times. But at no point was it because one saw me and decided to attack me. One instance was because one got into my shirt while I was on a swing and got stuck. Another time, I went to pick up a canteen on a camping trip and it was on there and I failed to see it, my hand grabbed it, and it stung me. Yet I am still scared that I am going to get stung every time I see a wasp.

I also have two kids. If a wasp gets in the house, and I remain calm and just brush it outside, they are calm as well and are even fascinated by them. But if I freak out, they freak out.

If you are scared of something and outwardly act on that fear in a fanatical way, others will become scared too, no matter how unfounded the fears are for them.

And as your fear spreads, it hurts and infects them as well. Maybe they were wearing a mask to the store but you shared all this information about how it cuts oxygen off to the brain and causes seizures, so they become worried and stop wearing a mask. They wander through the store and get exposed to COVID-19 and find themselves in a hospital on a respirator. Maybe the time I freak out about a wasp in the house is the one time that pushes one of my kids away from becoming an Entomologist and kills their dream.

The good news is, there is something you can do, and we will discuss what that is next time.

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If you are concerned that your fears are infecting and hurting others, I would love to help you navigate that. Send me an email at jeremyzerbycoaching@yahoo.com or visit my website. And if this article has impacted you in some way, feel free to share it on your social media platform of choice, clap, or leave a comment.