Only thing to fear,
is fear itself and that what’s
we got, fear itself!

I stole that line.

I am not talking about the, “Only thing to fear …” line.

That line came from Frankin Roosevelt’s 1st inaugural address.

There is some history that that line was suggested by FDR advisor, Louie Howe.

There is also some thought that the line may have had it roots in the Sept 7, 1851, entry in the journal of Henry Thoreau that read, “nothing is so much to be feared as fear.”

And there is some more thought that the line goes back to back to Francis Bacon in 1623 when he wrote, Nil terrible nisi ipse timor, or, Nothing is terrible except fear itself. (De Augmentis Scientiarum, Book II, Fortitudo – 1623).

Nope.

Not that line.

I am talking about stealing or in today’s usage, repurposing the line, “That’s what we got, fear itself.”

That line was said by Deputy Barney Fife in season 4, episode 2, The Haunted House, (air date October 7, 1963)’ (did you ever notice how you can quote Andy Griffith Show episode references like you were citing a Shakespeare quote, ie “we band of brothers” from Henry V, Act IV Scene iii).

The Internet Movie Database or IMDB credits a Mr. Harvey Bullock as the writer of the scene and I will go with that.

Remember that Opie and his buddies got their baseball into the ‘old Rimshaw Place” and when they went to get the ball, they were scared out of the place by sounds and rumors of ghosts that haunted the house.

Andy tells Barney to go get the baseball and Barney, with Gomer, gets scared out of the place.

Andy chides Barney with, “Wasn’t it you that said we got nothing to fear but fear itself?”

To which Barney replies, “Well that’s exactly what I’ve got – fear itself.”

Sometimes the 1st step in dealing with a problem is admitting you have a problem.

And that is where I am.

I think about politics, the world at large, covid and the economy.

What do I get for my thinking?

I got problem.

And what is that problem I got.

I will tell exactly what I got.

Fear Itself!

As an end note, the Andy Griffith show exterior shots were filmed at Forty Acres in Culver City, California.

This is the same back lot where the movie Gone with the Wind was shot in the ’30s.

The exterior of the Rimshaw Place is a house on the lot right next door to the house and front porch used both as Andy’s home in Mayberry and the Atticus Finch home in the movie To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Rimshaw Place itself was used for the exterior of the Miss Pittypat’s home in Atlanta.

Where Rhett Butler carries Miss Melly to a wagon to get out of town, Clark Gable carried Olivia de Haviland down that walk past where Andy, Barney and Gomer stare at the haunted house in Mayberry.

hidden derangements
abnormal psychology
of national mood

Today’s haiku is not based on what you might be thinking.

It comes from an article written in Forbes Magazine in 1948 by one of the Forbes editors, Lawrence Lessing.

Mr. Lessing was writing about the State of Florida.

He wrote, “Florida is a study in abnormal psychology, useful in signaling the hidden derangements of the national mood.“

I came across the quote in an article about Florida and Covid-19.

The author, Geoffrey Kabaservice, of the article, “I’m from Florida. Our coronavirus crisis doesn’t surprise me” states, “A lot of bad trends in American life find their most bizarre and refined forms in the Sunshine state, which is why “Florida Man” has become shorthand for the bad behavior of too many state residents. As far as the present pandemic is concerned, the simplest and most convincing explanation for why Florida is experiencing an explosion of Covid-19 cases it that it is an extreme case of the broader American failure to take the pandemic seriously.”

Mr. Kabaservice ends his article with a short vignette of a couple who had just visited Disney World in Orlanado.

The couple told interviewers that, “was the first thing that made us feel like we could leave our house and still feel safe.”

And why did they feel safe, they were asked.

“It’s Disney!”

As Frank Lloyd Wright would say, “There you are.”