Fifty States of Fear - NYTimes.com

Fifty States of Fear - NYTimes.com

The British philosopher Bertrand Russell,
writing as World War II was drawing to a close in Europe, observed that
“neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely
or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” Russell’s point
was that irrational fear can propel us into counterproductive
activities, ranging from unjust wars and the inhumane treatment of
others to more mundane cases like our failure to seize opportunities to
improve our everyday lives.

Just like authoritarian states, democracies can use fear to exert control over the populace and consolidate power.

It is hard to dispute Russell’s claim. We all
know that fear can impair our judgment. We have passed up opportunities
in our personal lives and we have also seen groups and nations do great
harm and unravel because of their irrational fears. The 20th century
was littered with wars and ethnic cleansings that were propelled in
large measure by fear of a neighboring state or political or ethnic
group. Given this obvious truth, one might suppose that modern
democratic states, with the lessons of history at hand, would seek to
minimize fear — or at least minimize its effect on deliberative
decision-making in both foreign and domestic policy.

But today the opposite is frequently true. Even
democracies founded in the principles of liberty and the common good
often take the path of more authoritarian states. They don’t work to
minimize fear, but use it to exert control over the populace and serve
the government’s principle aim: consolidating power.