How Powerful Is Fear? From the dawn of human evolution to the contemporary world, fear has served a powerful role in the lives of humans. The ancestors of humans have faced danger in the form of predatory animals. Today, humans don’t have to fear threats such as large animals, but these fears have developed into an innate instinct transferred from generation to generation. In the modern-day, fear is a powerful force that allows individuals to manipulate large groups of people for personal benefit, as well as being an excellent personal motivator in one’s daily life. Other than allowing humans to detect predatory animals, fear is powerful when it is utilized by leaders and advertisers to influence large masses of people.
Dictators utilize artificial threats to impose fear upon their people to ensure sovereignty. The reason for this is as stated, “Manufacturing an external threat, like Jews to Hitler's Germany, or the entire West for Kim, help keep the society off balance and collectively paranoid as well”, (Eric Miller, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45751914/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/how-dictators-keep-control/#.XYe7jS2ZNao). Through this, dictators can psychologically command their people by convincing their people that a dangerous threat is present. Furthermore, advertisers can utilize the fear of their consumers to promote a cause or product. This form of advertising is often used to convince people to appraise and reform behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and other hazardous behaviors. This type of advertising is also utilized in political campaigns.
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Candidates can either encourage voters to vote for themselves or reject other candidates, by suggesting a large-scale threat that they can solve or the candidate will incite. This was utilized in the ‘Daisy’ ad by Lyndon B. Johnson during his presidential campaign. Through the use of clever advertising and propaganda, people can be easily influenced to believe they are under a severe threat or change their behaviors completely. Fear is powerful as it serves as an excellent motivator, encouraging individuals to grow and develop through their decisions. Fear allows an individual to recognize potential behaviors that are detrimental by realizing the potential consequences that will await them if they continue. Similar to advertising, if one is educated on the health risks associated with smoking, they will be motivated to quit smoking to better their lives. While fear pushes people out of their comfort zone in unique and exciting ways, fear is most effective if the change is reasonable and can be performed easily. The fear of failing an exam can be easily solved by studying for the exam, however, a fear of rejection and loneliness is one that one may be reluctant to approach or solve.
Fear can serve as a powerful motivator allowing someone to change their lives for the better while becoming a more adaptive and determined individual in the process. Fear is a powerful emotion that can be utilized in a multitude of ways to control or change individuals for either the better or the worse. From dictators to religious leaders and advertisers, fear can be used by different people to accomplish different things, one of them being motivation. The ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ response is still as powerful as when our ancestors used to avoid predators, whether it is used positively or negatively it progresses us into someone that we weren’t before.
Work Cited
- Niiler, Eric. “How Dictators Keep Control.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 21 Dec. 2011, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45751914/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/how-dictators-keep-control/#.XYe7jS2ZNao.
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