According to Wikipedia, fear is an emotional response to a perceived threat.  Fear has the potential to be a significant motivator of human action, in-action, and specific behaviors.

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In past ages, direct fear imposed by powerful rulers was used to control the masses, control the individual and motivate society to enact the will of the ruler.  The world has never been without such methods being employed.  Basically, the transaction includes a club in the hand of the powerful with the threat of the use of the club as the motivation for the ‘governed’ to comply with the wishes of the ruler.  The prudent tyrannical ruler endeavors to minimize the use of the club. His primary aim is not to harm, but instead to control.  We are all familiar with these processes of the bully, but in the modern era, most of Western civilization dispensed with allowing these methods to be the normal order of society.

In the 17^th Century, some among The People, got their act together and developed a concept known as the Social Contract.  This was the introduction into an understanding across society that the authority of the state was derived from the “consent of the governed.”  Thus developed an antithesis of tyranny.

However, there is some feature within human nature that drives some to desire to attempt to be the masters over all the rest.  Observation demonstrates a driving force behind this that is beyond the simple explanation of ambition, self-preservation, or just trying to get ahead. These are factors, but there is one factor that is deeper; there is an element of evil that motivates men to strive to be master over all others.  Therefore, there is always a certain pressure for humanity to be approaching tyranny, a vector that is resisted only by the will of individuals willing to defend the liberty of themselves and of others.

The fundamentals of the Social Contract have become ensconced within our laws, and therefore the new tyrants are prohibited from using direct intimidation and direct force, at least during this current moment in history.  Unable to use direct fear that was used in the past, the new tyrants have found another way, an insidious way to wield indirect fear.  Once again, fear wielded on purpose and for the purpose of controlling the masses and controlling the individual. Perhaps another word for control will be “slavery” if the oppression is continued to expand.

The formula of fear has many dimensions.  As many of the natural threats to our health and survival have been diminished, those who desire to rule manufacture new threats and the attendant fears then position themselves to be the great rescuers.  Potential dimensions of fear are limited only by the imagination, as those in power are becoming experts at manipulating our fear of innumerable, manufactured crises.

To be effective, the first required condition for this process is the widely adopted, yet false premise that life, if managed properly, can be, and should be, completely devoid of risk.  This false premise is then leveraged in the next step toward Statist control when politicians promise to be the slayers of any new risk that might appear on the horizon.

Here are three examples of managed fears that have been brought upon us in the recent past:

• Climate Change (this is the poster child of all Boogie-Men throughout time)
• Pig Flu, a.k.a. Swine Flu, a.k.a. H1N1, and previously a.k.a. Bird Flu, etc.
• Evil, greedy capitalists who want to make a profit and make real people go broke

Significant tomes may be written about each of these items of intentional mass hysteria.  We will leave those larger and more detailed analyses for another day.  Any living person within even marginal contact in modern society can recite the mantras of each of these “issues.”

These managed and calculated crises of the mind are developed using the various apparatus of government.  They are laid before us in government reports and transmitted by the Mainstream Media that sees itself as part of the centralized solution to developing a well-managed and controlled Utopian society.  Then, merely in B-Movie fashion, the savior of government swoops in to solve the problem. Simultaneously, real threats to our well being, real problems that we expect government to endeavor to solve for a free people, are dismissed as being of little concern or much too complex to trouble the little people with.

Here are a few things that might be on our mind if it were not for the straw man boogie-men that have been propped up for us to fear:

• A nuclear-armed radical Islamic Iran that routinely threatens the West and the modern civil world; an Iran that aligns itself with expansionist, aggressive Islam, following the aggressive and violent mandates of its prophet
• Pending economic catastrophe of un-payable international debt to finance hand-outs to the unproductive wards of the patron state
• Continuing losses of a national capability to house, feed and clothe our society through our own national self-sufficient production
• Societal decay evidenced in moral, intellectual and other non-material areas

Society becomes vulnerable to methods of managed mass hysteria through passive and active changes within.  Features within the ‘popular’ thinking in our society today bound on the insane.  For instance, these include ideas that travel in a direction toward suicide of our civilization as represented by those who dream of an earth that is devoid of human beings.  Their perfect, imagined world is one that specifically does not include people; the dreamer himself has been eliminated in order to perfect his dream. (See http://www.worldwithoutus.com/index2.html )

When presented superficially, in our superficially ‘intellectual’ society, these types of insanity find significant casual adherents because the ideas are mostly global causes.  The causes are full of “feel-good” features and are scalable in a way that allows adherents to believe that they are “doing their part” through minimal impact to themselves while demanding actions that will cause great harm or loss to others as well as destruction to the mechanisms of civilizations upon which we all depend for our sustenance.

There are many reasons why we have arrived at this crossroads.  A few that may lend themselves to immediate recognition and response include: 1) a loss of the real idea of education, 2) the growth of a notion of immortality, 3) an emotional dependence upon today’s luxuries, 4) a loss in esteem for the idea of self-sufficiency, 5) overspecialization by individuals such that many have no knowledge of how critical processes of civilization function outside of their own specialty, 6) overdependence by individuals on television, and similar emotive modes of communication, to provide them a view of the world – it is a false view, and 7) a multi-front attack on the foundational values that are the core to the success of Western civilization.  (These topics will be addressed in subsequent articles)

Reversing any of these trends will assist in strengthening the ability of our civilization to survive.  Failure to change course may result in our destruction.

At moments in American history, there may have been miraculous interventions that initiated the formation of this great society and this great nation.  However, there exists no magical blanket that will protect us from descent into a dark abyss reminiscent of any previous era of barbarism.  There is plenty of barbarity taking place today in America if we decide to actually open our eyes to it.  Today, the choice is ours.  We can go about our nominal daily lives and be led to destruction.  Or we can recognize the weaknesses that have grown, or have been specifically planted in our society, take action to correct those weaknesses and assist in the continuance of our society.  Failure will not be a pleasant experience for most of us.  Success will require courage.  Courage is not a lack of fear.  Courage is a chosen and practiced ability to see beyond fear and an ability to act upon a moral will to do the right thing despite the possibility of detriment to personal circumstances.

Cross-Posted at Freedom’s Voice

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