written 30 April 2023
published 7 May 2023
In 1984, Rush Limbaugh began claiming that "government, academia, science, and the media are enemies of the people", amassing great personal power and wealth. Casting doubt on the foundation of our society, he built on President Reagan's assertion that the "government is the problem". This was further amplified by the rise of Fox News in 1996, making billions promoting fear.
To be fair, some people in government are motivated more by personal gain than public service. Academics are people, and often have biases and narrow rigid perspectives. Science is an evolving understanding, where paradigms that have held sway for decades get swept away by new information. Media concentration has led the institutional limitations and reduced free flow of information. But in all these cases, hindering discourse only makes matters worse.
Frightened people suppress their fore brain logical processes, and activate their reptilian brain flight/fight impulses. Breathing and heart rates increase and digestion is reduced. Blood chemistry changes and blood supply to vital organs is curtailed. As fear becomes chronic, health deteriorates, fatigue and depression increase, memory becomes impaired, decision making becomes difficult, social contacts deteriorate, and beliefs are increasingly questioned. Frightened people are easily distracted and controlled, but a fearful nation is not a healthy nation.
America is the only country on the planet with more guns than people, twice the per capita ownership of the next highest country, the Falkland Islands. This produces headlines like the teenager who rang the wrong doorbell, and was shot through the door by the elderly homeowner. Or the woman shot and killed after driving down the wrong driveway. Or the cheerleader shot for getting into the wrong car in a parking lot. In each case, the shooter claimed they "feared for their life". All these stories happen in just one week.
Traditional Republican offering of "thoughts and prayers" in response to the monotonous parade of gun violence has been augmented by admission that they "don't plan to do anything about it", because they are slaves to the gun industry. When citizens in Tennessee protested in their State House against gun violence, Republicans ousted two of the three Democrats that joined the protest (just the two black members). Cosmic irony is that both men were reappointed by the voters who had elected them, and the leader of the Republicans who expelled them, had to resign due to sexual misconduct.
But marketing fear is more destructive than just gun violence. By promoting fear of our democratic form of government, we get extreme political polarization, election deniers, and the insurrection of January 6th, which lays the foundation for accepting an autocratic alternative. By promoting fear of academia, we erode free discourse, general access to education, and the dumbing down of our citizens. Cultivating distrust of science damages our national health system, eroding our response to pandemic diseases and hinders our economic competitiveness in the global economy. Denigrating the media worsens social polarization, destroys true transparency, aids the corrupt, and keeps society more ignorant.
Furthermore, the conservative perspective lacks any concern about the impact of corporations, the foundation of Republican fundraising. Corporate philosophy has shifted over time, condensing from a wide range of social concerns to the sole objective of maximizing executive and shareholder short term economic returns. This has created a concentration of wealth where three men own as much as the poorest 170,000,000 Americans.
Because the needs of some many people are irrelevant to these three rich men, we have chronic problems of homelessness, poverty, inadequate health care, and massive environmental destruction. Keeping people poor goes along with keeping them afraid. When life is dominated by paying for the essentials of life, there is little time for joy, altruism, social activism, or creativity.
The marketing of fear has created a beast that is out of control of the marketers. Most people want honesty, and liars eventually go too far. Lawsuits have brought down Alex Jones, and the Dominion case showed Fox News, obsesses with profit over truth, lied regularly, chasing the conservative Republican base to boost market share. Being only slightly more cautious, Fox is now losing market share for being too "woke".
We all have the power to choose love over fear. This is the nature of the Golden Rule, and the core of all spiritual traditions. Those selling fear have powerful megaphones, but we don't have to buy their product.
