That's a tough one. I have to say I doubt anyone would actually have you killed. I'm sure that happens but not too often. More often people use their power to inflict lesser kinds of hurt and pain on people. But it doesn't have to be sophisticated or ultra intelligent people. The world is full of petty tyrants who are given a little bit of power, and they use it make other people smaller so they can feel bigger.

My sister's bf was fired from his job at Target recently, for example. He wasn't accused of theft or anything. They were saying he was lazy. But they didn't have a talk with him and give him a chance to change or present his side. In fact he says that he wasn't even doing what they claimed he was doing. But no matter! He's out. They kept saying they had him on tape. It's kind of scary. They have some 25 year old kid working at Target on tape being "lazy," and they fire him without giving him a chance. It's like someone with a tiny bit of power decided they didn't like him, so they found a reason to deprive him of his job in this horrible economy.

It reminds me of years ago when I was enrolling my son in a children's class at the natural history museum. The office manager was one of those petty tyrants who took great pleasure in using her tiny bit of power to hurt people. Another woman walked in and said her son really wanted to take the class on bugs, but she couldn't afford it. She wanted to know if there was any scholarship money left over to help. They did have a little bit of scholarship money for poor families, but it was used up quickly. Instead of saying, "I'm really sorry, the scholarship money is gone," this nasty nasty person said something really mean and vindictive about how she couldn't kick paying customers of the class. You could see how much pleasure this creature was taking in trying to humiliate this poor mother - who did a great job of maintaining her dignity.

Those are the people who scare me. No one's going to try to have me killed. But might someone have me fired or whatever because they didn't like me? Could happen.

How do you deal with the fear? I guess the same way you deal with any fear: accept the fact that into every life a little rain must fall. And try not to be one of the petty tyrants. Try to be as kind and generous as possible. And remember the petty tyrants are unhappy, suffering people - otherwise they wouldn't act that way.

Don't know if that helps or not.