I have a sense that a lot of us are frightened these days. It isn’t the hair-raising fear that gives us an adrenaline rush. It is the slow dread that creeps up on us in the night and denies sleep. And it really doesn’t help to say, Don’t worry, everything will be all right. I’m not so sure that FDR’s We have nothing to fear except fear itself, would be any help either.

It might help a little if the politicians and the news media would stop trying to scare everyone to death. What the politicians have done is impress upon our minds that the situation is truly beyond their control.

It isn’t merely that they don’t know what to do. There really is nothing they can do to roll back the laws of human nature. If we can believe the news sources available to us (I’ll admit that is a very big if), we are entering a new era in the world.