Tuesday, August 4, 2020

The Politics Of Fear



Pandemic and the Politics of Fear

Ayad Rahim




The classic textbook definition of politics is “who gets what, and how” — the “who,” being any element of society — an individual (private citizen or politician) or a group (political party, industry, interest, or class); the “what,” being the resources of the society (wealth and political power); and the “how,” being the means by which “the who” acquire “the what.” The “how” is the least-straightforward variable in the formula. An individual or group can appeal to people’s “better angels,” or they can tap into their baser instincts — fear, being possibly the most basic. 

In Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs,” the two most-basic levels are physiological and safety needs — needs such as food, health, shelter, and security. The primordial fear of not having or losing one of these basic needs has always driven human behavior, and people seeking power have always tapped into those fears, making fear, possibly the oldest and easiest trick in the political playbook: “The people on the other side of the hill are out to get us!,” “Those wild animals want to eat us!,” “and only I can protect you.” In politics, fear is used, to create instability, panic, and an inability to function normally. Those exploiting fear will likely present the situation, and their solution for it, as driven not primarily by fear, but by positive intentions, “for the benefit of the people.” Many political scientists hold that McCarthyism was the last time that fear was used as a political tool on a national scale. Some make the case that McCarthyism was just one episode in the broader Cold War, with its “Soviet threat,” “Red Scare,” “Red Menace,” and “Yellow Horde.” Some observers maintain that the War on Terror and Operation Iraqi Freedom were more-recent uses of fear as a political weapon.


When fear consumes a person, he loses hope, perspective, a sense of proportion, and the ability to think clearly. 

When fear overcomes a people, it can sink a society — people become mistrustful, atomized, and debilitated; individuality, privacy, and reality get degraded; and a society’s cohesion, self-confidence, and ability to evaluate events are ripped to shreds. In Iraq, civil society was completely wiped out, and its people became mere putty, to be manipulated by those wielding power (in great part, through fear). The goal, for rulers who want to wield power through fear, is for people to be afraid — to be very afraid — scared out of their wits, fearing the worst, so that just one word — like “spike,” “unprecedented,” “deadly,” ”alarming,” “boo” — will immediately send them into a panic.

The governor of New York “gave the game away” in an April press conference, when a reporter asked him about people protesting that they wanted to work (to feed their families), and that the cure was worse than the illness. The governor, slowly and emphatically enunciating each word, said: “The illness is death. What is worse than death?!” I imagine that competent handlers have since composed some softer tunes for the governor’s hymnal.


Most Americans might think, “It can’t happen, here!” — and, indeed, it may be the case that fear comes easier to people weaned on the stick more than on the carrot, but fear is universal — not only a natural emotion and primal motivator, but necessary for survival and to escape harm and danger — which is why it is so easy to exploit (child’s play, in politics). You only need a scapegoat and a symbol to mask your true intentions and to blind people to those intentions and reality. Any scapegoat or symbol will do, so long as they work. In Iraq, it was Jews, imperialism, and Coca Cola. Here, it’s Donald Trump, a contagion, and a mask.

In America, today, fear has led to conditions that have not only wrought economic and social devastation (essentially, killing life), but are destroying, ending, shortening, and lessening the lives of just about everybody. The breadth and depth of the devastation are staggering. The lockdown caused 50 million people to lose their jobs, which increases mortality rates, and hurting most of all, those living paycheck-to-paycheck. It has ruined millions of businesses, forever. It has crushed the hopes, prospects, lives, and livelihoods of most of the country. It is retarding children’s education, with far worse consequences to come; and it has increased drug abuse, child abuse, and domestic abuse (much of it, now going unreported) — all of which will drive who-knows-how-many into despair and suicide in the months and years to come.

 In addition, weakened immunities, delayed and curtailed access to medical care (including for cancer, heart disease, and other acute ailments), and the fear of going to the hospital have worsened people’s health; and put at risk, shortened, and ended the lives of far more people than this virus will. All for a normal risk in life (with a survival rate of more than 99.9% for people under 65), a risk that has been exaggerated, distorted, and sensationalized, entirely for political purposes.


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