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I was listening to NPR this morning on the way to work and they were discussing the use of fear as a political tactic. The story was not what I would consider fair and balance as they asserted that only those who oppose health care reform are making use of the tactic, but one of the people being interviewed about why fear is such an effective tool in blocking legislation stated that fear has the effect of causing us to focus on the problem and divert our energies to addressing the cause of our fear. Of course the implication is that we stop being rational when we are motivated by fear.
As I thought about that it really irked me that they paint people as nothing more than animals – it’s all biology. The truth is that while we are prone to act less than rationally when we are consumed by fear we also have a heightened capacity to think clearly in many high-pressure situations. The key to thinking clearly is that we must not let the fear overwhelm us – let the adrenaline enhance our senses without letting go of our capacity to look at the evidence and make deliberate choices.
I admit that fear is an effective tool in public debate and that it rarely produces optimal results (in politics or any other situation) but it is important for us to recognize that fear is a tool used by parties on opposing sides of many issues and that it may not be an act of irrationality that when the people of the United States have focused on the issue of health care reform multiple times in the last century they have always come tot he conclusion that the reform they were being sold was not all it was cracked up to be.
7 replies on “The Politics of Fear”
If any one is going to accuse another of using fear as a political tool, then it would be more effective to address the substance of the fear and reasonably dissolve the fear. If the substance of the fear remains unexamined, then trying to assign motives to the other is the politics of diversion. And if the fear has a real basis, the politics of diversion will not work- because people sense a real and genuine danger- which is stronger than diversionary tactics
Hmm, maybe I should write about the Politics of Diversion – that's at least as common as the politics of fear.
I'd like to see that!
Mackenzie is right that fear is a normal and appropriate human response necessary to properly deal with threats to our safety. But those who create false threats play on that response system. Fear-mongering is the issue and the great irony of people who claim that the “Right” is using fear to dissuade the passage of health care reform are actually using fear to make their claim. There are some on the Right who are using fear without supporting their claims with facts and there are those on Left is doing the same thing. The solution is for everyone to also use their God-given capacity to determine what is correct and what is false, analyze the facts and then make a reasoned conclusion.
I recall stories as a child about Chicken Little and the Boy Who Cried Wolf. We really have not advanced to far in our behavior patterns.
Chicken Little and The Boy Who Cried Wolf – very nice. This is a story of Chicken Little complaining about the Boy Crying Wolf. It’s sad how often the pot calls the kettle black. (I may have set a record for the highest cliche ratio in one comment.)
Fear isn’t just a tool – it is also a rational and visceral response to real and actual danger. It is disengenuous to respond to fear by dipicting the fear as a form of manipulation while failing to address the actual content of the fear. The only way to determine the reality factor of the fear is to address the content of the fear.
Well said. Fear can be a tool, but it can also be an appropriate response to danger. NPR may do a story where people complain about fear being used to promote false dangers, but the fact is that the false elements of the danger would not be so frightening if they were not coupled with some truly dangerous and fear-worthy aspects of the legislation.