Fix It

Scary world we live in. How should we deal with threats such as floods, famines, fevers, or fires?

In the short term we are motivated by the acute stress response to fight if we can win or flee if we are likely to lose. But what if fighting or fleeing do not resolve the threat and it turns chronic. In that case, some other response is required including investigation, planning and amelioration. In short, things need to be fixed. Failing a fix, we find ourselves like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Hence the acronym FFF or F, my thesis in a nutshell: Fight, Flight, Fix, or Fiddle.

Let me explain. With regard to fighting, I haven't much to say. I am by nature a pacifist, or to be honest, a chicken. I might risk battle on a matter of principle, but I will consider options before landing a punch or loading my gun. The way I see things, a fight involves a sentient opponent looking for advantage and finding it with an average 50% probability since there is always a loser and it could be me. If I think my odds are better than that, the psychologists say I must factor in my optimism bias, which arouses my habitual pessimism bias. Better flee.

Fighting is not always an option. If your opponent is a wildfire, fight is merely metaphor. The flame already has the advantage; unlike you, it doesn't care so it can't lose. In any case, the odds are better if you don't get caught. Falstaff called it discretion, if I remember correctly. 

Faced with some threats, such as omicron or climate change or getting old, there is no safe  place to run. In that event, look for a fix like vaccination, solar cells, or aspirin. Fiddling should be the last resort, reserved for when fixes don't work and you need some distraction while waiting for the denouemont. Chocolate ice cream is also good.

I like a lively tune, but we invite trouble if all we do is fiddle. Ignoring or denying a threat to avoid stress and effort, that is fiddling. When you can't find a malevolent mind behind a threat, and you turn your anger and aggression on your friends, experts, authorities, and those trying to help, that is fiddling. Don't run and hide when there is no safe place to go; that is fiddling. Trusting nostrums and rejecting proven remedies, that's fiddling. 

Well OK, calm yourself with fiddling if you must. After the catecholamines are replaced by acetylcholine, have a snack and a nap. Then wake up, investigate the threat, make a plan, and fix it. 

We are living a miracle.
The world works.
We have a say in what happens next.
God is in us with this.
Us includes everything.