Being an introvert, I really do not care for a lot of chaotic noise invading my world . . . my space . . . or my mind. Sadly, we live in a world filled with chaotic noise pounding us from all directions stirring up vitriol creating division and divisiveness. It seems and feels like everyone is hollering at one another. It is wearing me down. I want the hollering to stop.
John Prine wrote a song called Quit Hollerin’ at Me. The premise of the song’s story is that the advertising world—especially on television—is constantly hollering. Buy this! Use this! Say this! Hear this! Yada, yada, yada! This onslaught is overwhelming to the point that the singer has had enough and wants all the “hollerin’” to stop. The truth is that the song is about more than advertising . . . it fits all the “hollerin’” going on in the world today. You should listen to the song.
The hollering is all around us. There is the economic hollering. There is religious bantering. There is the climate screaming. There is the continual political yapping. There is all the “ism” posturing. There is gender and sexuality piping into the fray. Everyone is striving to be heard. Hollering . . . yelling . . .screaming . . . howling—noise, noise, noise! All want us to listen and follow. It is enough to drive a person insane—especially an introvert like me.
The scary thing about it all is that all this hollering is grounded in fear. It is not about understanding the “other”. It is about fearing the “other”. Who is the “other”? Well, that would be anyone who doesn’t see, believe, and live like the one doing all the hollering.
The idea behind hollering is that hollering gets heard. And that might be true. It might be true if everyone wasn’t hollering at the same time. It is all noise. Noise has been proven to raise the anxiety level in critters and humans. It seems to ramp up the fear. Fear is the new bat used to beat people into submission.
In his 1933 inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the phrase, “Nothing to fear but fear itself.” His goal was to calm the nation’s people of their economic fears and to sell them on his domestic policies and programs to alleviate the problems of the Great Depression. Then, of course, he started hollering and stoking up the fear if people didn’t listen and follow his guidance.
Fear is “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or be a threat.” All this hollering is based on fear. We humans do not like being scared. Because of this we have bought into fear. And, somehow, out of all this hollering we are supposed to discover the solution to all our fear . . . to all that scares us. Yeah, right! You tell me what you hear . . . I hear a lot of noise.
I’m tired of it. I am certain that I am not the only one fatigued by all this hollering. I just want some peace and quiet. Don’t we all?
Sadly, I don’t think it is going to go away. I think the past couple of decades has only seen it grow . . . that and social media. Social media has only amplified the hollering. It is out of control. Fear is big business. Fear sells. It will get worse before it ever gets better . . . remember we are about to enter the “season of fear”. It is an election year! The hollering will only get worse as we enter the realm of politics in an election year.
All the hollering will center around fear. What do we citizens of the United States of America fear? Well, apparently a lot. According to the annual research conducted by Chapman University’s Survey of American Fears it appears there is a lot of fears. The survey covers 97 topics ranging from government, health and environmental matters to disaster preparedness, the paranormal and personal anxieties. In 2023 the “top ten” fears were:
Corrupt government officials (1)
Economic/financial collapse (2)
Russia using nuclear weapons (3)
U.S. becoming involved in another war (4)
People I love becoming seriously ill (5)
People I love dying (6)
Pollution of drinking water (7)
Biological warfare (8)
Cyberterrorism (9)
Not having enough money for the future (10)
Other fears: terrorist attack (16), global warming (20), outcome of the next presidential election (23), and random/mass shootings (24).
If you take out the personal fears about the people we love, eight of the ten are familiar hollering themes that I have heard my whole life. Several have been around way before I was ever born. And we are all hearing them now as the election year ramps up. Woe to our ears!
Whatever the case, fear is a mechanism of control by those in power . . . and it works! It works because we humans are lazy. We are looking for the easy way out . . . the loopholes . . . the least amount of time and energy spent. If someone else is willing to do the work . . . then so be it! If someone wants to tell us want to think and do . . . well, that is better and easier for us. Our hope is maybe they’ll stop hollering at us.
Though we humans might be lazy, we do have brains. We are capable of thinking for ourselves. Even if it appears as if all the hollering has lodged itself in our heads, there is still our voice buried deep under all that noise. Our voice. Our voice of reason. Our voice of compassion. Our voice can lead us where we need and should go. Our voice can speak for itself. We ought to listen to that voice. Listen and trust that voice. If we use our own brains, do our own work, that voice will show us the way. We must believe in ourselves because in the end it is our choice and no one else’s as to what we believe and do.
Think about it . . . those ten fears . . . what is new? Corrupt government officials—show me a generation where this is not the case. Economic/financial collapse—nothing new there. Russia using its nuclear weapons—its been there since the Cold War. I imagine that one of Russia’s greatest fears is that the United States will launch its nuclear weapons. Another war? Most of our nation’s history shows that we have been at war or in a military conflict practically every year of our existence . . . history proves this. War is nothing new for us. Pollution and climate change has been happening since I was a child and that was a long, long time ago. When has money—in particular, having enough not been a concern? There really are no new fears under the sun. Just a lot more hollering about them.
We are not stupid. We have the resources and the brain power to begin to solve all the fears we have. We just need to stop listening to all the hollering and that includes our own hollering. We need to sit down, listen, discuss and discern, and trust one another for the sake of everyone. Everyone! It can be done if we quit being bullied by all those hollering.
What we need is a mantra . . . something to remind us that we are fully capable of thinking for ourselves . . . capable of working together for the benefit of all . . . capable of community. I think John Prine offered a good one: “Quit hollerin’ at me!” Of course, we could add to it the classic line from the movie Network (1976): “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Combine the two and we have the perfect mantra to guide us in this adventure.
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore! Quit hollerin’ at me!”
Hey, it works for me. Might work for you. We ought to at least give it a shot. What do we have to lose?
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