What a daunting task, to identify the greatest evil among so many evils that plague the world today. Millions of people suffer the real possibility of death from starvation. Wars still ravage numerous countries, and those lucky enough to survive join the legions of refugees. Poverty leaves countless children living in hovels with no hygienic conditions to protect them from disease. Racism and nationalism still lead to genocide. Just listing the evils to choose from could take up an essay. So, how does this essayist choose?

I decided I could not possibly place the dangers of one of these terrible problems above the rest and declare that poverty trumps racism or war trumps hunger. Instead, I asked myself if there is some underlying cause that connects all these tragedies and more. My thoughts kept coming back to one thing: fear.

Why do people wage war? Greed, you might say, causes many wars - the people or government of one nation covet the valuable resources of another. But why do they covet? They fear they will not be able to compete or survive without that resource. They fear those who control the resource, such as oil, will not share it with them or sell it to them at a fair price. They fear those with the resource will come to control them and have leverage over them.

Other wars, you might say, are caused by hatred. People of one ethnic group or religion hate those who are outside their group or do not share their beliefs. They grow suspicious of outsiders and worry that those "others" will annihilate them or force them to give up their beliefs if they do not attack and take control first. What is any of this, however, other than fear? A dark side of human nature is to fear that which we do not understand and those with whom we are not familiar. We fear they will take us over if we do not wipe them out first. We fear they will impose their religious beliefs on the world and force us to renounce ours if we do not silence them first.

What of poverty? How, you might ask, does that relate to fear? Why, I would answer, does poverty still exist in a world that can afford to end it? We fear what will happen if we extend a hand beyond simple acts of charity. If we give third world nations too much or expend too much on poverty programs in our own country, what will be our return? Will we be taken advantage of? Will those we seek to help in turn exert the effort to help themselves, or will they just take advantage? These are our fears. Will enough be left for us if we give too much away? Will those who are strengthened by our magnanimity turn against us once we have empowered them?

Surely, hunger has nothing to do with fear. Why would any human being with any compassion fear the hungry and refuse to feed them? Yet, fear comes into play here also. We fear developing countries will not use forgiven debt to better the lives of their people but will instead take advantage of our generosity to line the pockets of those in power, so we do not forgive their debt. We fear we need all our own money to take care of our own problems, so we cut our foreign aid. We fear those at the bottom want to stay on the dole forever and live off our hard work, so we cut food stamp funding.

In this past election some people still did not join the throngs of first time voters because they feared their vote would not matter, that either side would still just abuse their power and continue with business as usual. Why bother to vote if you fear nobody will pay your concerns any heed?

Today, in 2008, there are still those who have seen fit to publicly display nooses as a way to show their distaste for our first African American President-elect. Their racism is nothing more than a knee-jerk fear that a man of African descent will surely revert to practices that are not up to the "civilized" standards of a "higher" race. Racism has not died even if it has abated to a large degree since our grandparents' day because the fears that fuel it run so deep.

Even on a more individual level, fear motivates almost all other evils. The gangs who terrorize some of our neighborhoods exist because they fear what will happen to them if they do not exert fear over their "enemies." They fear their territory will be encroached on, the profits from their illegal activities will dry up, the safety of their members will no longer be assured.

Within families, domestic violence is the result of fear, fear that without the "respect" gained by exerting control, the person who beats his family will be diminished. A man who is verbally abused by his boss, frustrated by his job, worried about his position, fears that he has no place to be on top if he does not make his wife and children cower.

What of spouses who cheat? They fear they are getting old, unattractive, less desirable if they do not go out and find those who will validate them. A husband fears he is not virile if young women still do not crave him. A wife fears she has become nothing but housewife and mother if no man is paying her sexual attention. Spouses cheat because they fear a faithful and deepening love does not provide the excitement that proves they are still capable of attracting a new lover.

And what of people who cheat in other situations? Students cheat out of fear they will not get into a good college if they do not excel, and they fear that everyone else is cheating, so they must level the playing field by joining the crowd. Taxpayers cheat because they fear everyone else is forcing them to pay more than their fair share by knowing how to use all the tax and accounting loopholes, so they must do the same. People cheat at work because they fear those who rely on honest work are left in the dust by people winning promotions through dishonest tactics.

Decades ago a scholar posited a theory called The Tragedy of the Commons to explain why our environment is being depleted. The commons used to be a pasture where all the farmers in a town could bring their livestock to feed. If each farmer brought ten sheep, the field would continue to grow and thrive and provide plenty of grass. But soon, one farmer reasoned that if he brought twelve or fifteen sheep, he would reap great benefits even though this might start to deplete the fields for everyone. One by one, each farmer, seeing what the others were doing, added sheep to his flock. Soon, the field was depleted and all suffered, but until that happened, those farmers who took unfair advantage first outearned their neighbors.

This Tragedy, of course, is meant to show how if we each act out of sheer self interest, we will eventually hurt everyone's common interest, and our planet will be in deep trouble. Yet, people continue to act out the tragedy of the commons every day. Yesterday's shepherds are those who overfish our waters today. Why? Fear. They fear others will take advantage, and so they do it first, wanting to be the person who comes out ahead. Why should our company follow regulations that cost it profits while competitors' companies pull ahead? Why should our country agree to restrictions that might lead to another country's pulling ahead in the global economy? We fear the short range consequences of responsible behavior.

Fear that others will not play by the rules we are asked to play by causes so many instances of bad behavior that I could write a book before I had included them all. Think about the evils that concern you the most. Do any of them not eventually trace their way back to suspicion, lack of trust, fear? Our President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, once said we have nothing to fear but fear itself. I would argue that is one of the wisest things ever uttered by man.