We are born worriers, aren’t we? We can’t seem to help it. Whether we are concerned about things we have done, or worried about our futures, it appears to be a very human state to doubt whether we have done, or are doing, the right thing.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself... nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance", said Franklin D Roosevelt, who, in the earliest stages of his presidency during March 1933, sought to shake America out of the malaise of its Great Depression. Roosevelt had just inherited the poisonous chalice of a presidency that had 25 per cent of its population unemployed, farmers walked off their farms in despair, homeowners were thrown on the streets made destitute by the ever-avaricious banks, many of which themselves were to come crashing down. It was a time of unparalleled economic hardship, a time when 10 million Americans never knew where they would sleep that night, or where their next meal was coming from.
Do you think the thousands of Americans who thought the only way out was to take their own lives were ‘challenged’ by the visceral realities, baring the very self-doubt which put them on that skyscraper window ledge, that bridge railing, or on the train tracks in front of an oncoming train? I think not, but what is clear is that Roosevelt wasn’t going to apportion blame, make excuses, or ‘sugarcoat’ the challenges that lay ahead and in presenting the raw truth that there was no magic solution, but that apathy, sloth and wallowing in self-pity were not the answer; and that every individual must exorcise their own demons before the nation could regain its feet.
Amazingly, within two years, America was ‘up off the canvas’, punch-drunk maybe, it had survived. It was unsteady, but would shake its head, clear its thoughts and gain a respect for itself that has characterised and sometimes caricatured, the resilience, the bravado, the machoism and boldness that is America today. Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, Stalin and even Churchill, gravely underestimated Roosevelt, who of course had his own unique challenges, being wheelchair bound with a paralytic disease, probably the debilitating Guillain-Barré syndrome, so for him, compassion and understanding weren’t only words and even more certainly, he understood that only with the right words could he revive a nation that was slipping away, not flailing or fighting, but passive, insouciant, lethargic and indifferent to its demise. He made them understand that with self-awareness they could regain self-respect and eventually, the respect of others and that’s how you resurrect a nation on its knees.
We can take strength of character further by taking the philosophical perspective of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose most famous aphorism from his 1888 volume ‘The Twilight of Idols’: "Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich starker", was along the lines that “Whatever doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger”. Which emboldens anyone who hears it, when they hear it. Deliberation, contemplation, even reflection, may give us pause... to consider a less dramatic response, less turmoil. But what we cannot doubt is that once again, words demonstrate the power to excite and incite us, to arm us with certainty that denies hesitancy and imbues us with the boldness and character of warriors, scholars and explorers.
It’s no use worrying. It will not change anything and regret, bad or wrong choices simply show us to be human. What we can do though, is take strength from others, or more correctly from the inspirational words of others, to be all that we are capable of being. If that makes us more than what we ever thought we could be, or to achieve more than we ever dreamed, then that is why we value words, respect them and seek to understand more of them. That’s why we must read and learn, because we need to unlock our greatest potential.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us”. Great words to live by, don’t you agree.
PetersenThe writer is a media consultant
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