The people who are sick with fear try to infect you early.

If you're black, they tell you to fear the white man's bigotry.

A woman is told to fear the patriarchy even though this includes the men in her life.

Gays are taught to fear the homophobes running rampant through the city streets.

Children learn to fear and loathe their natural sex.

On a broader scale, the people sick with fear promote mistrust for the very planet we live on.  They spread their disease by chanting about climate change; the psalm becomes a part of a gloomy atmosphere that contaminates all Americans.  On the raging mad scale of their illness, some will claim that a viral infection is revenge exacted upon all of Earth for mankind's many ecological iniquities.

Daily they remind you to dread the corporations, your specific division, your boss, and your co-workers.

Even mentally impoverished television-talkers demand that you fear the president because he might be a "Russian asset."  It puts you right in their hands, right where they want you.

In November, they start a campaign of anxiety for potentially sharing a Thanksgiving dinner with an aged and set-in-his-ways uncle who holds the "wrong" values.

In March, they utilize fear and masks to close down businesses and ruin the lives of hardworking citizens.

In April, they begin terrorizing you with videos of "murder hornets," which prompts people to Google "Can killer hornets kill you?" and receive in reply  "Its stinger is up to 10 mm long and contains a potent venom that, in cases of multiple hornets stinging simultaneously, can kill a human."

Fear is cumulative.  Even small 10mm fears contain enough virulence that in cases of multiple quantities can kill the human spirit.

According to the most experienced and expert of fearful people, only one deity exists that can envelop us in its arms and keep us safe from both killer viruses and murderous hornets: the Government.  To the determinedly fearful, Government is the one true Lord High Protector, and Spending is the sacrament through which Government expresses its love and protection.

I am probably not describing you; rather, I am relating the fact that more than half of our fellow citizens are seriously scared.  They are scared enough to shun the outdoors and sunshine, scared enough to refrain from visiting parents, children, and loved ones.  They are scared enough to avoid contact with the whole world and all of human life — scared enough to shutter their stores and lock their doors to keep the monster at bay.

Those in positions of authority scared people right out of their civil rights.

Therein nests a sickness to which we may never find a cure.