Phobia, Phobia

According to a questionnaire a number of years ago, right up there on the list of things people fear most is being bitten by a snake. There is even a name for an irrational fear of them – ophidiophobia. A few romantics claim it goes back to that infamous reptile in the Garden of Eden. Unlikely, since the fear is shared by people who never even heard of the Genesis. If one has been bitten by a copperhead or a rattler, anxiety is understandable. But the fear can be present in people who have only seen pictures of snakes or heard stories about them. What is closest and presumed dangerous seems to worry us most. That might be a problem.

The media are rampant with such perceived immediate threats, and so-called “nature shows” frequently reinforce stereotypical menaces: man eating sharks, venomous spiders with inch long fangs, stinging jellyfish, the octopus and grizzly bears. 

In spite of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and raging forest fires, Nature is not out to get us, really – even if it frequently does. But we seem bent on being out to get Nature. As if we could, but a recent study indicated that plant and animal species are becoming extinct 1,000 faster since our history began. The “Sixth Extinction” is now the latest global anxiety. We either crowded species other than ourselves out of existence or allowed species that shouldn’t be where they are in the first place to take over.

Being anxious about scorpions is understandable, even if usually a bit irrational. On a more perilous scale, it’s getting way past the time when we should be anxious for the earth itself, not about just what’s on it. We might need to broaden our imagination before the Earth does indeed go flat like a deflated balloon. We need an extinction phobia?