by Eric Misener

Created on: February 19, 2009

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." Franklin Delano Roosevelt made this statement over 60 years ago, and yet it appears we have not learned from it. Fear is a great motivator. At its base, it is an instinctual reaction to outside stimuli, meant to enhance the chances of preservation of the individual, and by extension, the species. Fear causes a physical reaction in animals, raising blood pressure, increasing heart rate, and releasing adrenaline. Many animals are most dangerous when they are scared.

The same can be said for social groups. When a group of people is scared, it is most likely to implement policies that are hazardous to both outsiders and its own members. The use of fear as a motivator in the body politic has a long and sordid history. From the fear of hell and damnation that was used for centuries to control the development of philosophy and scientific thought in medieval Europe, to the scape-goating and conspiracy mongering that exemplified the regimes of Hitler and Stalin, frightening the populace into accepting policies that otherwise sober minds might balk at has been a staple of regimes across the political spectrum. And while the above is an over-simplification of complex political and social processes, the fact remains that a major component of authoritarianism is the employment of fear as a weapon against its enemies.

In recent years, the word "terrorism" has become ubiquitous in its usage among politicians and media commentators alike to describe the acts of groups and individuals attempting to foster social, political and economic changes through instilling fear in certain societies. The very term denotes the intent of the perpetrators of these acts. It is clear that the hope of terrorists is that the people they target will change their policies due to the fear of the acts the terrorists are willing to commit. Therefore, the term, as used by politicians and commentators, may well be accurate in most circumstances. The problem is that those same members of the political and media establishment use the same tactics as those they brand with the name, albeit in a more subtle and insidious manner.

"Democracies" and "republics" have no natural immunity to the politics of fear. Time and again the history of the United States and other democratic states demonstrates the ability of segments of the establishment to utilize the spectre of dangers, both real and imagined, to implement policies that those segments believe to be necessary

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