The New Fear

“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”

Franklin D Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States.

During last summer I went for a walk, to the village I grew up in. Walking across the fields I came first to the primary school that I attended aged 4-11. My memory had been of school buildings leading onto a tarmac playground, flowing into a double length grass playing field, edged on three sides by open farmland where cows grazed. What I now found were high steel fences and industrial level security gates. Many of the pathways around the school that I used to take as a child were now blocked off or secured behind padlocks and keypads. I wanted to go round the back of the school to the bike sheds where I first kissed a girl (or more accurately where she kissed me!), but the way was barred by more locked gates. The whole site was monitored by CCTV cameras which seemed to follow me wherever I went. Of course, the explanation for this virtual imprisonment of the children can be summed up in one word, which was now the lead value of the school – safeguarding. But for whose benefit is this implemented? Are we really so sure it is for the benefit of the children?

Looking back at the many changes which had taken place I could see that I had been blessed with an experience which today’s children are missing – freedom. I interpreted that visit to my old school as a symbol, encapsulating what had happened to our entire society: imprisonment by fear.

“The people can always be brought to the bidding of their leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” Hermann Goering, Reichsmarschall of Nazi Germany.

A fearful population is a compliant one, and though at first they might comply with semi-reasonable laws, in the end they will comply with, and probably actively take part in, the creation of horrors. Despite the many lessons of history, here we are again, walking down this path once more…

The cheerleaders of the New Fear are the news and entertainment companies – online and mainstream – who present a constant diet of fear. Fear of the virus, fear of those who have not been vaccinated, fear of those who walk down the street with their head held high, fear of the NHS collapsing, fear of vaccine supplies running out, fear of not having enough people to give the vaccine out, you name it, everyday there is a new fear to push. And when all the current fears fail to materialise then new ones are quickly pumped up, by the fearful for the fearful. The only conclusion that can be sensibly drawn from this is that those who consume the news are destined to live in fear. At least until they can get Soul Strong…

But it is not just the news, this is also true of movies and television drama, which amplify fear through increasingly dramatic and emotional storylines. And all this is done because fear is an immensely powerful tool for those who want to advance a new agenda. It does not even matter if there is a backlash against them, because both news and entertainment now rely on engagement not viewing figures. Programme bosses actively court controversy and seek outrage because social media likes and dislikes mean engagement, and engagement means that advertising revenue goes up. Public service broadcasting is just as guilty (possibly more so) because their eyes are increasingly fixed on the money they get from selling overseas rights, the price of which is maximised if they can demonstrate engagement.

I took a break from the likes of CNN and the BBC a long time ago, but recently returned to check-in on the latest. I wish I had not, because I felt like I had beamed down to a different planet. Stories were constantly slanted, and always in the same direction, opinions were presented as fact, and it was as if they had never heard of words like consistency and hypocrisy. Everything was about fear: fear of the collapse of our eco-system, of extreme weather events, of lone gunmen, of men, of white people (if you are black), black people (if you are white), and everybody (if your Asian). This kind of presentation is next level toxic because you simply cannot grow if you are consuming this level of fear. It is infantilising and is pulling our society backwards. And I could see, very clearly, how emotion was driving everything, and the need to think, analyse, question and probe had been discarded.

Fear is a killer primarily because it makes you override your own intuition, to go against what you would otherwise know to be right and true. As such it warps our decision-making and sense-making processes. If you wish to escape this nightmare then you have to be free of fear, which means that you must learn how to manage – and if necessary control – your emotions. Those who cannot, or will not do this, are enslaving themselves, waiting to be flicked this way and that by the latest outrage, triggered by the words of people they will never meet and driven half-crazy by the actions of people they will never know.

Fear causes people to flock, to collectivise and to seek sanctuary with others. But those who are without fear will not be found in such places, so the fearful land up assembling only with each other. In such a situation there can be no growth, no happiness, no healing, just a descent into madness.

The solution, of course, is to question everything, all the time. And I mean everything. There is no point escaping the propaganda of the BBC only to bow down at the feet of David Icke. You have to think for yourself. To think, to research, to question and to examine all points of view, especially those deemed, under the rules of the New Fear, to be problematic.

By questioning, by refusing to accept what you are told until you have worked it out for yourself, you can at least partially resist the rage of the mob. Ultimately each person may have to do much more than this, but it is a start. I accept that this is hardly an original suggestion - to think for yourself - but such are the depths to which we have fallen, in such a short space of time, that it almost seems like heresy.

Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash