in this video I'll examine how fear can
be used as a tool to manipulate others
and how those in positions of power have
effectively used fear to control certain
aspects of society the fifth and final
news filter that Airmen and Chomsky
identified it was anti-communism
manufacturing and sent was written
during the Cold War Chomsky has since
updated this fielder in the model to be
fear the ruling class exploit public
fear and hatred of groups that pose a
potential threat either real exaggerated
or imagined communism once posed a
primary threat according to the model
communism socialism were portrayed by
their detractors as endangering freedoms
of speech movement the press and so
forth Chomsky argues that such a
portrayal was often used as a means to
silenced voices critical of elite
interests opponents are demonized as
insufficiently patriotic or in league
with the enemy governments use fear to
sustain their Authority the elevation of
terrorism into the biggest threat to
civilization no doubt provides a lot of
material for scripting the politics of
fear but the script is hardly original
it has been recycled in different forms
for decades in the post Second World War
era there was a continuous promotion of
fear of the other side fear of communism
underpinned Cold War ideology with
periodic outbursts of fear of crime fear
of immigrants and fear of nuclear war
fear is a powerful driver that causes
people to look for someone to save them
they will also accept things otherwise
they might not like terrorism has been a
fairly consistent phenomenon over the
last century from extreme Islamists a
Marxist ultra-leftist to nationalists a
wide variety of militant groups and
individuals will use violence to achieve
their goals but death by terrorist
attack each year pales in comparison to
death by other causes such as natural
disasters and car crashes the
government's go to great lengths to
create ramified warning systems security
schemes our intelligence apparatus
magnifying terror and anxiety in the
process this may come from a genuine
concern for the citizens safety a large
part of it comes from the bureaucratic
desire to extend its reach and power an
appeal to fear is a fallacy in which a
person attempts to create support for an
idea by attempting to increase fear
towards an alternative Chris Erickson a
university of british columbia
a professor in the School of political
science says there's nothing new in its
approach in fact he says is a
well-tested strategy used by leaders
throughout history but he says is the
weakness to play in the politics of fear
it's effective if you don't think about
it too much as soon as you start to
identify the pattern you begin to see
how really obviously it is for example
judging from the headline on the
newspaper and he peers at the only
reasonable thing to do moving forward to
protect us all
he's with the government to never start
watching everyone while some of these
imagined fears our ones are making many
are the consequences of narratives
created by those in positions of power
individuals looking to take advantage of
and manipulate others have long realized
the power of fear when one is gripped by
fear or a threat real or imagined the
rational and high cognitive capacities
shut down making them easily manipulable
by anyone that promises safety from the
threat ruling classes for thousands of
years have understood the power of
intentionally evoking fear in their
subjects as a means of social control
Henry Frank Ford in his book the
intellectual adventure of ancient man
noted that between 1800 and 1600 BC a
fear psychosis spread through ancient
Egypt precipitated by the invasion of
foreign rebels hungry for power and
conquest initially this fear psychosis
was justified by real threat yet even
when these foreigners were successfully
driven far away from Egypt the ruling
power saw to artificially maintain their
fear among the population realizing that
a fearful population is easier to
control than a fearless one the
sociological concept known as moral
panic offers a valuable insight into how
and why powerful social agents such as
the news media and the police
deliberately create public concern or
fear or an individual or group moral
panic has been defined as a situation in
which public fears and state
interventions greatly exceed the
objective threat posed to a society by a
particular individual or group who are
claimed to be responsible for creating
the threat in the first place the moral
panic concept was developed and
popularized by criminologist Stanley
Cohen when he explained the public
reaction to disturbances by use called
mods and rockers at seaside resorts in
Brighton England during the 1960's moral
panics arise when distorted
mass media campaigns are used to create
fear reinforce stereotypes and
exacerbate pre-existing divisions in the
world often based on race ethnicity and
social class additionally moral panics
are three distinguishing characteristics
first there is a focus attention on the
behavior whether they're real or
imagined of certain individuals or
groups that are transformed into what
Cohen referred to as folk Devils by the
mass media this is accomplished when the
media stripped these folk Devils of all
favorable characteristics and apply
exclusively negative ones second there
is a gap between the concern over
condition and the objective threat it
poses typically the objective threat is
far less than popularly perceived due to
how it's presented by the authorities
third there is a great deal of
fluctuation over time in the level of
concern over condition the typical
pattern begins with the discovery of a
threat followed by rapid rise and then
peak in public concern with sin
subsequently and often abruptly subsides
finally public hysteria over perceived
problem often results in the passing of
legislation that is oddly punitive or
necessary and serves to justify the
agendas of those in positions of power
and authority central to the moral panic
concept is an argument that public
concern or fear over an alleged social
problem is mutually beneficial to state
officials that is politicians and law
enforcement authorities and the news
media the relationship between state
officials and the media is symbiotic in
our politicians and law enforcement need
communication channels to distribute
their rhetoric and the media need
tantalizing news content to attract the
wider audience which in turn attracts
advertisers moral panic is both a public
and political response to an
exaggeration or distortion of the threat
posed to society by some allegedly
harmful individual or group more
specifically moral panic includes an
exaggeration of certain events by
enhancing the empirical criteria such as
the number of individuals involved the
level and extent of violence and the
amount of damage caused this intentional
creation of false fear is armful to
democracy attempts us to surrender our
freedoms to a demagogue who promised his
strength and security in return these
demagogues present themselves as a
protective of the fearful however as
Benjamin Franklin said those
to render freedom for security on the
app nor do they deserve either one to
get all the real facts information
needed about what is really happening in
the world you must search for
information beyond the mainstream and
look into alternative sources when we
rely on these alternative independent
sources of information we can then make
up our own minds and determine the real
truth based on a wider range of opinions
as I have said before only you can
educate yourself don't rely on a few
press releases do that for you if you
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