Oh.  Whoa.  This is where democracy becomes a not very fun game to play at all.

But then again, sort of around when the First Philosophers were inventing philosophy in Miletus, and Heraclitus was inventing his River business, the post-tyrannical Athenians were inventing democracy.  And then, post-Persian-invasions, Aeschylus was inventing tragedy, arguably the greatest human art form: What We Want, versus What Must Happen, Regardless of What We Want.

I think I have been hard on democracy lately.  But in fact, while there is so much of democracy that does not deserve praise, I agree with Winston Churchill that it ends up far preferable to any other solution devised so far.  And I certainly feel Fleur-de-Soleil's fear of fascism.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!

  David,  nice post, you are absolutely right about not using fear as a motivator!  And good responses.

  Facing anger, we want to flee or fight (or defend, which is how we view that fight impulse).

  Neither of these open our minds to hearing anything other than the anger.

  So, we learn nothing.

  No information is comunicated.

patrick

Smoke in the air from a big fire coming for your home.  A huge Katrina like storm or a tornado.  Drought taking the family farm.  Mobs of refugees fleeing 120 degree plus heat waves.  Storm water flooding NYC destroying the financial records. The cost of food and energy soaring.  

You have seen how your government has reacted so far.

Nothing to fear but fear itself eyyh?

Dream on.

Listen to the ones who deny global climate disaster.  Because it strokes their petty egoes. Because they have all the answers.

Leave it to these "experts".  They told you so, so many times before.

We don't need to use fear, nature is using it already.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

David,

With all due respect, and I do mean this as your writings always inspire me, I have to disagree with you on this one.

First of all, you seem to equate fear with violence. There is no direct connection. Certainly, one can make a jump from one to the other and back, but one can do that with any two states of beings. There are myriad threads that connect all actions. Fear does NOT imply violence. Rather, it can compel cowardice, heroism, anger, sadness - you name it.

More importantly, David, you must rememeber that we are running out of time to make changes. We should not rule any weapon out of our arsenal. Our greatest leaders, from Ghandi to Malcolm X all used fear, in some way or another, as motivators. The fear of falling behind, the fear of being usurped, the fear of the consequences of failing to radically rebel against an oppresive system. Not to get too political, but this is the failing of Dems and their pocket orgs, like MoveOn - they don't use all of the tools because they don't seek to lead the citizenry. Rather, they seek to coerce and co-opt. Understand that I'm far to the left of the Dem party and MoveOn, so I don't judge them for their failings, they are, to me, ineffective and will play no large role in the coming economic and lifestyle revolution that we will either engineer or will be forced upon us by nature. As with the equal rights movements of the 20th century, the Dems did not propel either, they simply followed along when the public pressure became too great. By this time, far too much suffering had transpired.  My point, FEAR can be a proactive agent, can inspire radical change. I FEAR what my son will live through, and his children as well. I FEAR not doing my part to right things. I FEAR many things that are very much worth fearing, and this keeps me active and on my toes, both intellectually and physically. This is not to say that I live my life in fear, but fear is certaily an essential component among my daily motivators.

Do not cast aside fear. Do not fear fear. Yes, it is often wielded recklessly, but this does not mean that it is a faulty mechanism. Again, our greatest leaders provide concrete examples of proper useage. Look to them, not the Republicans, for examples of how to use this tool.

Again, David, thanks for your writing on the subject. It is a very necessary item for us all to analyze.

"Because the world doesn't matter if you don't have the strength to go ahead and choose something that's really true." - Julio Cortazar, Hopscotch