How can a citizen protect himself or herself from a Culture of Fear?

[Hayabusa Rider]

I hate to bring God into the picture or Religion but...
It is the first best documented use of fear that I can conjure up.

I find it amazing that the Commandments are tools for control. Placing in the hands of the Clergy the Power to do some interesting things....

You are said to have free will... but, commanded to love this particular God, your parents and stuff... Then your are told God knows what you're thinking even.... So you'd better not be thinking no contrary stuff or to Hell with you forever...

To be sure some act out of fear but not all is done not nearly, because of it. Sometimes things are done because they are deemed good.

I submit that a larger perspective would include many institutions perverted by those who seek control and uniformity of thought. Be afraid of the religious. Be afraid of atheists. Republicans , Democrats. The Left. The Right. "Fear and appeal to me for your salvation" is hardly the sole domain of the Spanish inquisition. Fear that tribe, that village will kill us. I think this goes to our prehistoric selves, indeed before our species.

I think Dickens said something true and profound.

The Ghost of Christmas Present had two children clinging to him. Scrooge asked about them and the Ghost replied

"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom.

something to consider.

 

[LunarRay]

To be sure some act out of fear but not all is done not nearly, because of it. Sometimes things are done because they are deemed good.

I submit that a larger perspective would include many institutions perverted by those who seek control and uniformity of thought. Be afraid of the religious. Be afraid of atheists. Republicans , Democrats. The Left. The Right. Fear and appeal to me for your salvation is hardly the sole domain of the Spanish inquisition. Fear that tribe, that village will kill us. I think this goes to our prehistoric selves, indeed before our species.

I think Dickens said something true and profound.

The Ghost of Christmas Present had two children clinging to him. Scrooge asked about them and the Ghost replied



something to consider.

Without question ignorance is doom... But, that seems trivial in the face of the fear generated response to stimuli. What I'm thinking about is the notion that we have devolved... we ignore what is in front of our nose... As Orwell might have said... because it is hard to see.

We choose to adopt ignorance for some reason and I suggest cuz it is easier to do. We seem to enjoy being carried by the swift current toward the waterfall's end result. We don't want to rationalize that risk when we can take the easy path of compliance. At least not as individuals... Group mentality has a leadership... And we are social beings who'd prefer any agenda than one that might exclude us from the club. In many cases, that is.
Maybe that is the key to survival... The tree that bends in the high wind will be more likely to bend again... We may have evolved by virtue of our adaptability to what ever is controlling the situation with no or little regard for consequence... Ignorance is bliss.... The group sees a member die and they mourn... maybe... but the individual simply dies.

 

[BoberFett]

I don't fear anything. Some people think I'm happy-go-lucky to the point of stupidity, but I don't let them bother me.

 

[Moonbeam]

Without question ignorance is doom... But, that seems trivial in the face of the fear generated response to stimuli. What I'm thinking about is the notion that we have devolved... we ignore what is in front of our nose... As Orwell might have said... because it is hard to see.

We choose to adopt ignorance for some reason and I suggest cuz it is easier to do. We seem to enjoy being carried by the swift current toward the waterfall's end result. We don't want to rationalize that risk when we can take the easy path of compliance. At least not as individuals... Group mentality has a leadership... And we are social beings who'd prefer any agenda than one that might exclude us from the club. In many cases, that is.
Maybe that is the key to survival... The tree that bends in the high wind will be more likely to bend again... We may have evolved by virtue of our adaptability to what ever is controlling the situation with no or little regard for consequence... Ignorance is bliss.... The group sees a member die and they mourn... maybe... but the individual simply dies.

Perhaps, however, there is a vision that there is only one group and I belong to it. The bigger the mind the bigger the group it can contain, me thinks. So what, I ask myself, is it that includes rather than excludes. It sure as heck ain't fear of want.

 

[Moonbeam]

I don't fear anything. Some people think happy-go-lucky to the point of stupidity, but I don't let them bother me.

That saying didn't gain currency from Bobby McFerrin, but from the Divinely Beloved who loves you more than you can possibly ever love yourself. You know who he his I hope.

 

[BoberFett]

That saying didn't gain currency from Bobby McFerrin, but from the Divinely Beloved who loves you more than you can possibly ever love yourself. You know who he his I hope.

Bob Marley? Jah mon.

 

[LunarRay]

Perhaps, however, there is a vision that there is only one group and I belong to it. The bigger the mind the bigger the group it can contain, me thinks. So what, I ask myself, is it that includes rather than excludes. It sure as heck ain't fear of want.

I'm not so sure on the 'One group' bit.

I think we identify with what our parents or influential entities are and they what their... and so on back to the beginning.

Take a few kids of different religions... say 5 year olds... We point to one and call them a Catholic or a Baptist or Muslim or Jew... and they say I am this as well... how can they be at that age? They identify with parents. Some break off at some age when they can rationalize the error or find another more satisfying thing to grasp.

Once, however, folks do identify with something they are forced to defend their decision by defending that which they now identify with... They have to or they'd move to something else. It is easier to maintain that status than figure out why they do.
Perhaps the notion of being 'a big fish in a little pond is better that being a little fish in a big pond' has some merit.

How many people do you know actually rationalize oh... say going to war with some country?... People tend to defend the folks who they identify with on either side of that issue. The decision maker for war in this case if they so identify. They adopt all of the 'talking points' without question and resort to anything but proper debate. They have to! That or they move to the other side based on actually thinking for themselves... So there is hope.

As you know, L is a full blown Right winger... and tries to convince me that Obama care is going to destroy me... hehehehehe She won't listen to the reality of it.... Nothing can penetrate the shield she has developed... So... there are times when there is no hope. :whiste:

So... there is always another group, interestingly enough... but they are always wrong... hehehehehehe

 

[Kadarin]

Thievery Corporation released an album about this back in '11. Moonie, you need to keep up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWvqkDvv4mE

 

[werepossum]

Don't forget about all the war fronts as well: War on Drugs, War on Women, War on Poverty. These ongoing wars continue to drain the moral of our troops.

LOL! +1

To be sure some act out of fear but not all is done not nearly, because of it. Sometimes things are done because they are deemed good.

I submit that a larger perspective would include many institutions perverted by those who seek control and uniformity of thought. Be afraid of the religious. Be afraid of atheists. Republicans , Democrats. The Left. The Right. "Fear and appeal to me for your salvation" is hardly the sole domain of the Spanish inquisition. Fear that tribe, that village will kill us. I think this goes to our prehistoric selves, indeed before our species.

I think Dickens said something true and profound.

The Ghost of Christmas Present had two children clinging to him. Scrooge asked about them and the Ghost replied

something to consider.

Well said.

 

[Thebobo]

I think living in fear is part of our evolutionary history.

50,000 years ago our ancestors lived in fear of starvation and being killed and eaten by a predator.

5,000 years ago our ancestors lived in fear starvation and war.

500 years ago people lived in fear of disease and war.

Widespread disease and war is just about a thing of the past. So what do we have to fear? How do we forget about living in fear after hundreds of thousands of years?

Ahem! Are you forgetting the world is 6000 years old.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Bob Marley? Jah mon.

The Honorable Robert Nesta Marley Mon

 

[rudder]

You mean like the government saying we should watch out for toothpaste bombs and shoe bombs because they are out there and although there is no specific intelligence about an attack that we had better watch out? Is that the culture of fear you are talking about?

 

[Moonbeam]

Bob Marley? Jah mon.

No, Meyer Baba. He is the One you have always been looking for. Why does the reed make such a plaintive instrument? It is because is sing of its loss of its osier bed. But in the thundering din of life, who is there who hears it?

 

[Moonbeam]

Thievery Corporation released an album about this back in '11. Moonie, you need to keep up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWvqkDvv4mE

I have always been and always known I am thousands of years ahead of my time. I don't belong to time. I lost my clock.

 

[Moonbeam]

You mean like the government saying we should watch out for toothpaste bombs and shoe bombs because they are out there and although there is no specific intelligence about an attack that we had better watch out? Is that the culture of fear you are talking about?

It could be. Much would depend on whether those fears are real on not, no?

Here is another question for you. Suppose folk that fear toothpaste bombs are hallucinating such a fear and destroying the economy of the country in the process by limiting flights, over regulation, and rotten teeth, etc. Do we keep such nut cases away from passing rules we must all obey or do we find folk who see reality correctly. And how would we know who is who?

 

[Greenman]

I had no idea we had a culture of fear, other than a few on the lunatic fringe.

 

[Moonbeam]

I had no idea we had a culture of fear, other than a few on the lunatic fringe.

Any explanation for that level of unconsciousness come to mind?

 

[piasabird]

Definition is president fear monger Hussain Obama.

 

[Moonbeam]

Definition is president fear monger Hussain Obama.

How do you know you haven't been trained to be paranoid? Fear of a word like Hussain sounds paranoid to me.

 

[Thebobo]

Definition is president fear monger Hussain Obama.

What fear mongering has he done? I don't see it. Have we invaded a sovran country again because of fear mongering?

 

[Greenman]

Any explanation for that level of unconsciousness come to mind?

I certainly don't live in a culture of fear, nor do I know anyone that does. I know cautious people, I know people that have earthquake kits in their garage. Heck, I even know some loons that buy insurance in case their house burns down. But they certainly don't live in fear. They simply live. They do as they please within the confines of good manners. Why is that so hard to accept? What is it about everyday people quietly enjoying their lives that's so hard for you to believe? You need to get off the computer and go interact with other humans. You put far to much credence in the words of people that get paid to feed you bullshit that keeps you coming back for more.

 

[LunarRay]

I certainly don't live in a culture of fear, nor do I know anyone that does. I know cautious people, I know people that have earthquake kits in their garage. Heck, I even know some loons that buy insurance in case their house burns down. But they certainly don't live in fear. They simply live. They do as they please within the confines of good manners. Why is that so hard to accept? What is it about everyday people quietly enjoying their lives that's so hard for you to believe? You need to get off the computer and go interact with other humans. You put far to much credence in the words of people that get paid to feed you bullshit that keeps you coming back for more.

I don't see much of what you mentioned to be fear motivated.... Assessing the risk of an outcome or an event that has a reasonable probability for occurrence and then seeking to mitigate that eventuality is not irrational. Fear seems to have at least some degree of irrational behavior attached and so long as it is not a threat to others inappropriately it seems ok.

I don't fear Earthquakes and I live in Southern California... There is a high probability of one occurring here. I don't have EQ insurance, but some provisions.
I calculate the risk of being attacked by a great white shark while in the ocean very low but I won't accept that risk and since the only mitigation I can think of is to not go into the ocean, I don't.

Folks can develop an irrational behavior based on fear if the causation is imagined and, therefore, not really something that should produce the resulting behavior.
If you notice a tiger licking its chops while looking in your direction the fear response to that is or could be rational... iow, based on a real and present danger.

Political activity now a days seems to contain quite a bit of irrational fear based behavior... and that is a perplexing and a danger to us all.

 

[D-Man]

I believe the people that govern us count on the 'Culture of Fear' to control us. Every time we give into this we stand the possibility of losing a bit of our freedoms in the name of protection. The NSA is there to protect us and we loose a bit of freedom. As stated earlier in this thread we have a war on everything Zero Tolerance and on it goes. My one fear is that we lose so many freedoms in the name of fear that my adult children will not live in the America I grew up in. I refuse to live my life in fear from threats either real or imaged. I am a conservative mostly and calculate the risks of my actions but I still am willing to take risks just informed ones.

 

[Mai72]

How...

1. Stop watching and reading the news. Especially Fox and CNN.
2. Travel the world. Get out of your comfort zone. Traveling out of America is an awesome experience, and you will think differently.

just two examples.

 

[Moonbeam]

I believe the people that govern us count on the 'Culture of Fear' to control us. Every time we give into this we stand the possibility of losing a bit of our freedoms in the name of protection. The NSA is there to protect us and we loose a bit of freedom. As stated earlier in this thread we have a war on everything Zero Tolerance and on it goes. My one fear is that we lose so many freedoms in the name of fear that my adult children will not live in the America I grew up in. I refuse to live my life in fear from threats either real or imaged. I am a conservative mostly and calculate the risks of my actions but I still am willing to take risks just informed ones.

I appreciate this point of view and thank you for expressing it. I believe that despite the fact that politicians try to leverage fear into party votes there are threats that come and go that are real. I believe we poked a stick into a Muslim hornets nest via our lust for oil and have created a real terrorist threat for ourselves. We always create what we fear. The result of that, of course, is that our enemies, lacking a military means to respond to us, but with high motivation, look for other means to get us, namely terrorism. The bottom line is that because we are stupid as a government we have created a real threat to our people. The best way to do something about that, in my opinion, is to work to undo what we have done as sincerely as we can, but in the mean time, we can't just allow the deaths of our own innocent people. This means, to my mind, that a pure idealistic concept of personal liberties has to flex under the terrorist threat. All the national security laws we passed, however, should have expiration dates that require new votes to continue. I don't know where to strike the best balance, but I believe one is needed.