The Last Thing We Need Coming Out of Colleyville is More Fear

The human brain is wired to put fear ahead of other emotions. As Jessica Schrader writes in Psychology Today, “From an evolutionary perspective, the emotion of fear protected humans from predators and other threats to the survival of the species. So it is no wonder that certain dangers evoke that emotion, since fear helps protect you and is therefore adaptive, functional, and necessary.”

We ought to keep this fear bias in mind as we calibrate our response to the Colleyville hostage crisis and to antisemitism in general.

To put it bluntly, fear makes us feel alive. Danger, especially when seen from afar, adds drama to our lives. The famous media cliché, “When it bleeds, it leads,” is famous for a reason: It’s utterly true. Readers and viewers will naturally gravitate to danger stories, whether these are horrible hurricanes or terrifying hostage crises. Editors never forget that.

To put it bluntly, fear makes us feel alive. Danger, especially when seen from afar, adds drama to our lives.

During the harrowing hours when Jewish hostages were trapped inside the Texas synagogue, a few friends commented that it was “like a movie.” Indeed it was. We’ve become accustomed to watching dramatic “breaking news” events and movie thrillers that keep us on the edge of our seats. As dark as fear may be, it is also seductive and weirdly entertaining.

For activists, it is also lucrative. Donors have the same biases as everyone. A fundraising pitch around fear has more impact than a fundraising pitch around hope or love. That’s not a judgement or a complaint, it’s just reality.

For Jews, who have such a long history of persecution, fear is like a genetic reflex. An attack against Jews isn’t just an attack against Jews. It’s also a reminder of countless other attacks throughout the centuries that have shaped our collective memory.

An attack against Jews is a reminder of countless other attacks throughout the centuries that have shaped our collective memory.

When the Jewish world sat transfixed to the news Saturday night wondering if the hostages would come out alive, we had 11 hours to stew in that collective memory. “Here we go again” was the familiar and familial sigh.

It’s no surprise, then, that we’ve seen a blizzard of statements and reactions from multiple Jewish organizations, as well as endless media stories and commentaries covering every possible angle of this latest attack.

Here’s my angle: We shouldn’t give in to fear. We shouldn’t wallow in it, inflate it, or allow it to dominate us. The more we publicize our fear, the more noise we make about Jew haters, the more satisfaction we will provide to those haters.

Here’s my message to the haters: You don’t scare us. You don’t have the power to disrupt our lives and our communities. We will fight you, we will strengthen our security, but we will do so while fully living our lives and without making you media heroes.

One thing we don’t want to amplify is the egos of Jew haters.

It’s interesting that in the article in Psychology Today, Schrader writes: “In a study of risk-taking, participants who were fearful consistently made judgments and choices that were relatively pessimistic and amplified their perception of risk in a given situation.”

Jews may have every justification to “amplify” our perception of risk, but one thing we don’t want to amplify is the egos of Jew haters.

Even if we do harbor a lingering fear of those who hate us, the haters of all people don’t deserve to know that.