Fear and greed tend to expand the size of government, as well as creating “a crisis.” Conjuring illusionary crises and promoting fear as a pretext for more government power is nothing new.
Government officials who “rule” us (and forget they are public servants who are basically our employees) understand the basic facts of fear and exploit and cultivate it. Be it a warfare or welfare state, they depend on it to secure popular submission, compliance with dictates and on may occasions, affirmative cooperation with the state’s (or party’s) enterprises and agenda.
Without public fear, government leaders could endure no more a few hours. Public opinion rests on fear.
Historically, thousands of years ago, the first governments relied primarily on warfare and conquest. There were o social contracts to form the state. While there have been constitutional conventions, those merely changed the working rules of the already present government.
In any case, the people who were not slain in warfare by the victors, had to continue paying tribute to inconsistent rulers. Subjugated people feared for their lives. Offered the choice of losing their wealth or losing their lives, they tended to sacrifice their wealth (hence arose taxation).
Conquered and fearful people naturally resent the imposed government with its taxation and restrictions and can eventually become restive and if the opportunity arises, throw off the oppressor’s dominion. Even if they mount no rebellion or resistance, they quietly strive to avoid the government/ rulers and sabotage the apparatus of government.
As Machiavelli observed, the conqueror who does not manage this matter well, will lose whatever he gained and find endless troubles.
Sooner or later, every government augments the power of its sword with the power of religion to forge a union of throne and alter. The Pharaohs of Egypt went to so far as to declare themselves gods - subjects can be brought to fear with this dynamic. The warriors and priests invariably come to be cooperating parties – with the warrior government putting the people in fear for lives and the priestly element putting them in fear for their souls. Over the ages, governments that claim to be protectors refined their appeals to popular fears, fostering an ideology that emphasizes the people’s vulnerability to a variety of internal and external dangers. Government convinces the populace that it will protect them.
As a shepherd protects his sheep, but he does so to serve his own interest, not theirs, and when the time comes, he will shear or slaughter them as his interest dictates.
When the government fails to protect the people as promised, it always has a good excuse, blaming some element of the population and people buy into it. Perhaps the worst excuse they use is “for the public good.” Oppression is not for “the public good.” It is about control.
As to scaring the public, the first time the government cries wolf, the public is frightened; the second time, less so; the third time, still less so.
If the government plays the fear card too much, it overloads the public’s sensibilities, and eventually people discount almost entirely the government’s attempts to frighten them further.
People are tired of the fearmongering and fed of the lies behind the imagined threats that create fear – and expand the government and control.
Want to be less afraid? Demand truth and accountability – and shrink the government.