Chicken Little as Policy Icon
In his 1933 Inaugural Address, Roosevelt said the words, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." He was talking about the recovery from the Depression at the time and was urging people not to be paralyzed by fear and thus prevented from contributing to the rebound from the worst economic debacle of modern times. It was a smart thing to say, especially if you believe in the Rational Expectations School of Economics, which puts confidence at the center of economic behavior.
Roosevelt saw fear as an enemy of sorts, a thing to be overcome. However, he may not have even been aware at the time of the ways in which fear was being nurtured and utilized by governments in Germany and Italy in order to create compliance and malleability in otherwise enlightened populations, and done so for the benefit of a small new order of would-be rulers. Obviously, fascism ultimately failed but not before it had come frighteningly close to succeeding. And once the cat was out of the bag about how you could use fear to basically turn your citizens into sheep, and not to be outdone by right-wingers, the communists made use of fear in their various attempts to promote a "useful" servility among citizens beginning with Stalin's distastrous agrarian reform efforts in Ukraine, Mao's Great Leap Forward, and the singularly baffling brutality of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge years.
But all of these places and times are far away from our reality, right? After all, our leaders are elected and thus represent the people. A government that makes use of fear to steer the behavior of the people, i.e. its employer, is hardly behaving like a government of the people. So it is of course anathema that our society even could be manipulated by the smart use of fear, right? And it's a good thing too, 'cause history has shown us how dangerous it is for an entire nation to be driven by fear.
Roosevelt saw fear as an enemy of sorts, a thing to be overcome. However, he may not have even been aware at the time of the ways in which fear was being nurtured and utilized by governments in Germany and Italy in order to create compliance and malleability in otherwise enlightened populations, and done so for the benefit of a small new order of would-be rulers. Obviously, fascism ultimately failed but not before it had come frighteningly close to succeeding. And once the cat was out of the bag about how you could use fear to basically turn your citizens into sheep, and not to be outdone by right-wingers, the communists made use of fear in their various attempts to promote a "useful" servility among citizens beginning with Stalin's distastrous agrarian reform efforts in Ukraine, Mao's Great Leap Forward, and the singularly baffling brutality of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge years.
But all of these places and times are far away from our reality, right? After all, our leaders are elected and thus represent the people. A government that makes use of fear to steer the behavior of the people, i.e. its employer, is hardly behaving like a government of the people. So it is of course anathema that our society even could be manipulated by the smart use of fear, right? And it's a good thing too, 'cause history has shown us how dangerous it is for an entire nation to be driven by fear.
Posted at 5/11/2006 03:39:00 PM UTC
Permanent Link
1 Comment(s):
We cannot fear speaking up about these things, although I fear that I am now under investigation for terrorist links now that my phone records are being analyzed.
I think you are too I'm afraid to say.
Post a Comment
All comments are welcome, however, rather than posting an Anonymous comment please consider selecting Other and providing your name or nickname so others know who you are. Thanks.