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The New Culture of Fear

Fear - “Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” - Bertrand Russell

Fear - “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”-H.P. Lovecraft

Fear - “Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.” - Dorothy Thompson

Fear is a powerful emotion. It is hard wired into every human being as a defense mechanism. Early man when confronted with a head to head encounter with a huge hungry animal experienced a healthy fear that immediately injected large qualities of adrenalin into his system to assist in a hasty flight.

Or if flight was not possible the adrenalin rush increased his ability to fight if he must. Of course, fighting a large hungry animal is probably a bad idea that will ruin ones day. But at times that’s life. You don’t have a choice. You must fight when you would rather flee. You must be courageous and stand up to your fear and foe.

Everyone has a fear of some sort. Fear of the dark. Fear of heights. Fear of water that’s deeper then you are tall. Fear of snakes. Fear of fire. Fear of death. Fear of strangers, especially if they are a different color than yourself or of a different culture. And for some poor souls a fear of living their lives to the fullest. Safety first. Take no chances. Stay put. Don’t venture out.

These people lack courage. But all is not lost. Courage can be developed and through conditioning installed into individuals. The US military is good at that. Combat training teachs young men and women how to overcome fear by almost automatically acting in a prescribed way. This type of training is also used to train firefighters and policemen. Almost anyone can benefit by being well enough trained to complete a task in the presense of fear. With effort bravery can be acquired.
The popular saying, “have no fear” is stupid and dangerous. It’s the kind of thinking that can easily get you killed. The bravest among us are not those who have no fear but are those who are able to overcome their fears and act in a proper manner. They are brave and courageous.

That is what we should want to be. Brave and courageous and willing to confront and conquer our irrational fears and to take proper action when our fear is well founded. We also need the wisdom to be able to determine the difference between the two.

Since fear is such a powerful emotion it is all too easy for kings, presidents, dictators, and politicians of all levels to manipulate, control, and to shape public opinion by using fear tactics.

Saddam Hussein is an example of a dictator (officially in Iraq a president who was elected and reelected into office by about 99% of the voters. See how well fear works?) who was ruthless enough to make fear work to his advantage big time. Developing a culture of fear is a time tested tool of the “great leaders” of history. Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Genghis Kang immediately come to mind.

Saddam used his secret police force to deal harshly with anyone who opposed him. He used fear as the cement to hold together a nation that at best has an unstable ethic mix. Instant punishment was dispensed to those who Saddam took a disliking towards.

The prospect of a very fast process after being accused of a crime against the State and being tortured, hanged, thrown off a tall building, or shot in the back of the head, had most Iraqis singing praises to Saddam. If you were 100% for him you had little to fear. Unless an opponent or unfriendly neighbor made it seem that you were against him. Then watch out. Mistakes can be made.
Since 9/11 another type of culture of fear has developed within the United States. The fear of being attacked again by terrorists and the American governments initiation of it’s “War on Terror” has had unfortunate unintended consequences in the home of the free and the brave.

In the presence of fear and in the name of national security and safety Americans have meekly given up habeas corpus, the right to confront your accuser in a legal proceeding if the government so chooses, a fair and speedy trial, the right to have confidential conversations with your attorney, the right to have private phone conversations, and more.

Even worst, not all of the consequences are unintended. The culture of fear has been nurtured by politicians, from the President on down, who have used the publics fear of terrorists attacks to manipulate public opinion and to seize additional executive and legislative powers and privileges.

While the fear of another large scale terrorist attack is not irrational, the terrorists will hit the US again if they possibly can, for politicians to exploit and attempt to magnify that fear is disgusting and reprehensible. It has also been terribly expensive.

Billions have been spend by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, Police departments all across the nation, the Department of Transportation , ICE, and on and on but to what good effect?

Our actions in Iraq have more than offset any degree of additional safety implemented by our actions to shore up homeland defenses. I believe that Iraq will go down in history as one of the greatest strategic and military blunders of all time. It’s right up there with the unfortunately named “War on Terror” as being a costly no end in sight boondoggle.

Why do I say that?

Al Qaeda was even after 9/11 little more than a small band of Islamic radicals who got lucky with the success they had with their horrible attack on the World Trade Center twin towers. In spite of the terrible nature of the attack their planning and execution from the terrorists perspective and its effectiveness was brilliant. The ongoing costs to the US in its response to the attack has succeeded beyond the terrorists wildest dreams. In a nutshell in it’s desire for an immediate retaliation the United States leaped right into the trap.

For the United States to become paranoid in it’s fear over a small band of Islamic radicals and to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to stage a conventional war against an enemy with no central territory or country to defend is truly unfortunate. By going into Iraq and diverting massive resources away from destroying Al Qeada the US has created a live, high intensity training ground for terrorists who will be far more dangerous then their predecessors.

Today, over five years later, our actions have helped to create a lot more terrorists. We have not been brave or smart in our response to our fears.

IMHO it would have been far wiser to use selective US power and small military special forces and CIA units to take out those responsible for the 9/11 and other attacks against US interests. The United States had those highly trained units at the ready. The launching of a full scale conventional war against an unconventional enemy was an ineffective costly response that was based upon fear, not reason.

As stated above fear is a powerful emotion. So powerful that it can overwhelm reason. The manipulation of fear has been used to justify the waging of a war against no one or place in particular that is global in nature. So far the War Against Terror has created more terrorists and made the US to become more like our ememy than the US that I grew up in.

We must train ourselves to act bravely in the presence of fear. Since fear is hardwired within us we can not ever completely be rid of it. This means that we must acknowledge those things that we are fearful of and seek more knowledge and understanding about them. Fear is largely born out of a lack of knowledge and of understanding.

There is good reason to be fearful of some things. By taking the time to understand why we perceive a threat and the nature of the threat we can fashion a more appropiate response. We then have an improved ablility to be couragous as we know we have fashioned an effective defense and are prepared as best we can be to meet the challenge.

Once we face up to our fears we can think in a much clearer fashion. Then we are not so easily manipulated by the George Bush’s of the day or by anyone else. We can devise effective responses to threats. We will be more secure in our lives knowing that while fear may never be completely overcome we have it within us to face up to our fears and to be courageous.

Everyone has the potential to be brave.

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