Fear as a weapon of state
I just came back home from watching the movie V for Vendetta. It is quite brilliant.
It's all about fighting our fears which, of course, are manipulated and magnified by the mass media, as the movie trailer makes clear. Yann Martel, in his best-selling book The Life of Pi, wrote that fear is the main enemy in life. It seeps into our consciousness and paralyzes our willpower. As the saying goes, "you cannot defeat an enemy who has outposts in your head."
So what's the success secret? How does fear act as an obstacle to success?
"Fear is the mind-killer," wrote Frank Herbert in Dune, his celebrated novel. Indeed, fear is what prevents us from taking action. We fear failure and rejection and risk. So we do nothing.
Because we do nothing, we never learn and never grow. Worst of all, we reinforce our fear, making it stronger and stronger. We even come to a point where we can easily justify our lack of action. We live on automatic, relying on routine to carry us through the day, the week, the month, the year.
You can easily identify people who have fear. Just think about the people you know. Who doesn't try anything new? Who is relying on routine and keeps doing the same things in the same way?
In many ways, fear is like a virus. People may carry the HIV virus for years without knowing it. The difference, of course, is that fear is a (mental) virus transmitted not sexually, but socially and mediatically.
Why do the news media and governments use fear against citizens? In the case of the news media, it's quite obvious: to grab people's attention, boost ratings and keep advertisers happy. Advertisers, after all, are paying the salary of all the news personnel.
What about governments? Why do they use fear as a "weapon of state"?
The government is basically a specialist of violence, and they use violence against people OUTSIDE national borders and against people INSIDE national borders.
Since no government, unless it is fascist or communist, can use physical force against its own citizens without unleashing a bloody revolution in the streets, they have no choice but to use a different form of violence -- mental violence. Fear is preemptive mental violence. It kills your intention before your intention is fully formed in your mind.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with the government trying to make everyone respect the rule of law. Otherwise, it would be chaos. But the fear created in the minds of citizens can get to a point where it prevents them from trying new things.
Fearful people, who are often well educated and quite intelligent, rarely take risks or launch new ventures.
In a stable economy, such behavior might be excusable, even acceptable. But in today's global economy and with the rise of China and India, to be afraid of taking risks and boldly pursue opportunities seems to be a recipe for rapid economic obsolescence.
So what's the solution? How can normal citizens fight against fear (the weapon of state) in order to ensure their economic prosperity?
The answer is found in a book titled "The Sovereign Individual."
More on that later.
It's all about fighting our fears which, of course, are manipulated and magnified by the mass media, as the movie trailer makes clear. Yann Martel, in his best-selling book The Life of Pi, wrote that fear is the main enemy in life. It seeps into our consciousness and paralyzes our willpower. As the saying goes, "you cannot defeat an enemy who has outposts in your head."
So what's the success secret? How does fear act as an obstacle to success?
"Fear is the mind-killer," wrote Frank Herbert in Dune, his celebrated novel. Indeed, fear is what prevents us from taking action. We fear failure and rejection and risk. So we do nothing.
Because we do nothing, we never learn and never grow. Worst of all, we reinforce our fear, making it stronger and stronger. We even come to a point where we can easily justify our lack of action. We live on automatic, relying on routine to carry us through the day, the week, the month, the year.
You can easily identify people who have fear. Just think about the people you know. Who doesn't try anything new? Who is relying on routine and keeps doing the same things in the same way?
In many ways, fear is like a virus. People may carry the HIV virus for years without knowing it. The difference, of course, is that fear is a (mental) virus transmitted not sexually, but socially and mediatically.
Why do the news media and governments use fear against citizens? In the case of the news media, it's quite obvious: to grab people's attention, boost ratings and keep advertisers happy. Advertisers, after all, are paying the salary of all the news personnel.
What about governments? Why do they use fear as a "weapon of state"?
The government is basically a specialist of violence, and they use violence against people OUTSIDE national borders and against people INSIDE national borders.
Since no government, unless it is fascist or communist, can use physical force against its own citizens without unleashing a bloody revolution in the streets, they have no choice but to use a different form of violence -- mental violence. Fear is preemptive mental violence. It kills your intention before your intention is fully formed in your mind.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with the government trying to make everyone respect the rule of law. Otherwise, it would be chaos. But the fear created in the minds of citizens can get to a point where it prevents them from trying new things.
Fearful people, who are often well educated and quite intelligent, rarely take risks or launch new ventures.
In a stable economy, such behavior might be excusable, even acceptable. But in today's global economy and with the rise of China and India, to be afraid of taking risks and boldly pursue opportunities seems to be a recipe for rapid economic obsolescence.
So what's the solution? How can normal citizens fight against fear (the weapon of state) in order to ensure their economic prosperity?
The answer is found in a book titled "The Sovereign Individual."
More on that later.
posted by Super Peter at 12:37 AM
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