John makes some good life observations in the OP. The kind of fear he mentions though, is the kind of fear that is mainly constructed in the mind of the beholder, triggered by the news, family drama, job loss, maybe health issues. Once a man has experienced real fear on a primal level, then he can easily dismiss the fear construct generated by trigger events. A man that has experienced combat, or burning sticks the size of fingers raining from the sky to the noise of ten locomotives on a fireline, flakes of rust popping off the working of the hull of a too old boat in 25 foot seas and 50 knot winds, visible layers of ice building on the wings as the plane sinks lower...that's real fear, hence the saying of some old GI: "don't sweat the small schidt".
