Talk:Culture of fear

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Illogical perceptions of fear

A discussion of (or at least links to) the advertising tactics of "fear, uncertainty & doubt" (FUD), appeal to fear and mention of the studies concluding that people who watch more that three hours of TV a day tend to believe that the world is a far more violent place than those who do not watch TV believe - could go a long way towards linking these concepts into a socialogical perspective. Another possibly fruitful path might be to find studies about the adverse effects of the commonly perceived law enforcement mentality of us(good) vs them(bad).

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In a broader domestic political context, many believe that conservative politicians and moral leaders make people afraid about things such as terrorism, crime or illegal drugs both to influence public opinion and personal behavior. Language is a powerful and often subliminal tool to condition the development, internalization and habituation of fear in humans. For example that which is simply known as "public health care" in most countries is often labeled as socialized medicine in the US to give the concept an air of socialism. Similarly, the adjective liberal, which was a word with positive associations to the political philosophy of maintaining freedoms and liberties has, in recent years, been turned into a word of abuse in the US, especially by the conservative media. The association or words and ideas with negative sentiments is an effective means of promoting a culture of fear. It echoes the Nazi use of language to infiltrate the minds of a population, which the writer Victor Klemperer described in his 1947 book LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii: The language of the Third Reich: A Philologist's notebook.. This upturning of language as a means of mind control seeped further into public consciousness when George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was published, with its version known as Newspeak. Conservative talk show hosts have accused many liberal groups of creating irrational fears to manipulate people for their purpose or being solely motivated by fears. Rush Limbaugh often spoke of this on his radio show. While certain liberal points may be valid, conservatives accuse liberals of demonizing certain people and entities. To these conservative speakers, liberal speakers talk of "Big Oil" or "Big Tobacco", giving large complex entities such human, selfish, and amoral qualities that something, "anything", must be done. Right-leaning politicians in power have often been vilified by the left, say conservatives, and the resulting fears and doubts are not generated by the politicians themselves, but of the naysayers speaking dishonestly and frightfully about their opponents. Some have claimed that this led to the ousting of Newt Gingrich as Speaker of the House. But conservatives have conducted tactics similar to that which they have accused the left. Bill Clinton received quite a bit of vilification from the right. The term "Big Government" was often used pejoratively in discussions relating to nationalizing health care , though not to an increased military. Before the 90s, Ronald Reagan was often vilified. The history of vilification of presidents in the United States goes back towards the beginning of the 19th century. The idea of a society-wide "culture of fear" might be perceived by liberals and other opponents of conservatives as a shorthand for cultural manipulation for conservative political purposes. Conversely, liberals have also been accused of their fair share of scaremongering to suit their own political agendas, especially on issues of environmental protection, global warming, biotechnology and gun safety.

There are several alternative views:

* Politicians and orators speak to create an environment more amicable to their intended policies and philosophy.

* Promoters of a particular cause may want many people to join them in the cause. However, because people generally don't become emotional about something complex and hard to understand, promoters may tend to oversimplify matters to emphasize their main points and deemphasize points of contention.

* Commercial media outlets are simply maximizing their audience, and scary information happens to be one thing that grabs people's attention. (It is sometimes argued that this serves the public interest, though more often that it distorts public understanding of issues.)

An explosion of overblown fears in the public discourse might be labeled by other commentators as "scares" or moral panic. Typical symptoms of a scare include a lack of scientific or general education among the public, intrinsic human biases in the assessment of risk, a lack of rational thinking, misinformation, and giving too much weight to rumor.