Politics depends on fear


A great explanation of why the state needs your fear
Butler Shaffer has a great article "Fear, Incivility, and the State" up at LewRockwell.com.

We need to become aware of the dynamics of fear, and how its energies affect our personal and social behavior. The contrast between the marketplace and the state is particularly instructive. Most marketplace activity appeals to our desire for pleasure, material gain, or other life-enhancing ends. “The Belchfire-8 sedan will make you happy;” or “Hyper-Scent after-shave will make you attractive to women.” I have never been attracted to the Las Vegas lifestyle, but I think it is marvelous that a major city exists whose principal purpose is to promote pleasure.

By contrast, politically-minded people believe that societies can only be held together by fear – of punishment, prison, death, or other people. One need only contrast the language of market advertising – with its promises of benefits to be enjoyed – with that of legislative statutes – with threats of “fines, imprisonment or both,” as polar opposite inducements for your response.

It is interesting to observe the happy, eager, energized behavior of children at Disneyland, and compare it with the more somber expressions of students as they slowly and reluctantly make their ways to the government middle school one block from our home. People want to spend time at Disneyland or Las Vegas; nobody wants to spend time in after-school detention or San Quentin.

Hat tip to Sunni Maravillosa.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - October 21, 2005 at 03:37 PM  Tag


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