Is There Anything To Fear In Australia?

Foreigners would have us believe Australia is the deadliest place on earth.

“I don’t know how you do it,” they whisper, wide-eyed with fear and admiration. “How you guys survive, what with all those killer animals down there. You’re battling snakes, spiders, sharks, crocodiles… and let’s not even get started on the drop bears.”

We smile and nod, acknowledging that we live in the real-life seventh circle of hell, and regale them with tales of boxing matches with kangaroos. Because it’s funny and it makes us look good; even though none of those animals cause more than two deaths per year; even though most of us have never even seen half of them and couldn’t fend off a snake if our lives depended on it. And on the natural disaster front, aside from the occasional bushfire, cyclone or flood, we are generally lucky enough to be able to sit in our safe, intact homes and stare in fascinated horror at other countries’ earthquakes and erupting volcanoes on TV.

So, if Mother Nature’s not hell-bent on destroying us, what do we Australians have to fear? People? Perhaps not to the extent that we do.

‘Terrorism’ is a buzzword that’s been thrown around quite a bit, especially since the Sydney hostage crisis last December. With the terrorist alert level set to ‘high’, it may be time to question whether or not these fears are substantiated. After all, statistics show that thousands of people are killed by car accidents and work-related accidents each year while terrorist incidents are a lot less common. You’d think that more people would be deathly afraid of cars. Overall crime rates are also declining, although you still shouldn’t leave your valuables lying around unattended in public.

So, while we do have valid reason to fear crime and terrorism, there are other, less tangible bogeymen that still need to be addressed.

We fear hate. Injustice. Discrimination. Inequality. We fear the wrongdoings of corporations and governments; our own wrongdoings, towards others and the world around us. We fear everything that is holding us back from moving forward as a society and as human beings. And this fear should not be controlling. It should be constructive; the starting point of questions and then solutions.

Does Australia have anything to fear? Yes. We are not a utopia; a land of frolicking unicorns and abundant free Wi-Fi. Until that happens, the best we can do is reach down to the bottom of our own personal Pandora’s Box and find, amongst all the darkness, hope.

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