America’s alarm bells never stop ringing in this age of anxiety. Each of us must slow down

Let’s all calm down. Stop ringing the alarm bells. Take a breath. Panic only makes things worse.

Unfortunately, we live in an anxious era. The outrage pump kicked into overdrive this past week after the FBI raided Donald Trump’s inner sanctum. Republicans began talking of civil war. And left-wing pundits warned about right-wing violence. This is a vicious circle of anxiety and innuendo. And in the background are the algorithms that drive clicks on social media and keep us focused on fear-filled headlines.

Trump, of course, enjoys feeding the flames. Earlier this week — before the FBI raid — Trump said, “America is on the edge of an abyss.” He explained, “the next few years will determine whether American civilization will collapse or fail.”

This is a strangely counter-intuitive narrative, given that Republicans just won a major victory in the culture wars in overturning Roe v. Wade. You would think they’d be gloating instead of doom-scrolling. But that’s not the way things work in the age of anxiety.

The flamethrowers and provocateurs are not content with incremental change. They are always warning of the collapse of civilization. They even seem to relish the idea. A revolution may look like fun in the movies. But violence is unpredictable and dangerous. Flames, once lit, can easily burn out of control.

Sometimes it is wise to be alarmed. Say, when your house is actually on fire. And even then, it helps to remain calm. But life is generally not a frantic struggle between good and evil. There are struggles, to be sure. And we ought to be vigilant. But it is not healthy to live with the alarm bells constantly clanging.

Unfortunately, in our anxious age those bells never stop. Throbbing warning lights flash on our social media dashboards. There is so much to worry about that its often difficult to keep up: monkey pox, drug addiction, gun violence, climate change, racism, suicide, gender and sexuality, war in Europe, inflation, recession, rising authoritarianism, and the ever-impending decline of civilization.

In fixating on these crises, we often miss the good news. Despite all of this, in reality, for most people, most of the time, things are pretty much OK. Every life has a crisis or two. But things are better today than when women had no rights, when racial segregation was legal, when gay people lived in the closet, when there were no refrigerators, antibiotics, or vaccines.

Life expectancy has increased substantially in the last 150 years. In the 1870s American life expectancy was about 40 years. One hundred years ago it crept up to around 55. And today it has almost doubled from the 1870s to nearly 80, despite a slight downward tick during the COVID pandemic. This improvement is thanks to science, technology, and modern economic and political systems.

And yet, there is still a sense of impending doom. Rates of anxiety and depression are rising — and were rising even before COVID. Obviously, doctors and psychologists can help in individual cases. But to cure a cultural disorder we need a different kind of advice.

The world’s wisdom traditions encourage us to calm down and adopt a larger perspective. The ancient Stoics understood that life was afflicted by fevers, fires, storms and shipwrecks. They advised their followers to accept things as they come and stop fretting. Take care of your own life and virtue, they counseled, and stop worrying about things that are not in your control. The Buddha explained that the world is on fire, engulfed in a fever fueled by desire. He advised his followers to cultivate inner peace and stop clinging to the illusions of life. And the well-known “serenity prayer” asks God to provide the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change what we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

It’s also important to re-learn a lesson about ordinary democratic life. You don’t always get your way. But other citizens are not enemies. They are our neighbors, friends, and relations. Each of us is muddling through this world. We do better as individuals and as a community when we cultivate patience, tolerance, and compassion than when we fan the fumes of outrage.

Andrew Fiala is a professor of philosophy and director of The Ethics Center at Fresno State. Contact him: fiala.andrew@gmail.com.