Fear and Undue Influence

Allan thanks for your comments in the past two articles, the one from Karen Evenson's book and the other one from the Zim political situation.
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In our threaded discussions for the Leadership through Writing Class, we are currently discussing the books, The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman and The Conscience of A Conservative by Barry Goldwater. In one of my postings I wrote that at times politicians embellish their facts in emotion and may sometimes appeal to derogatory terms in order to outdo propositions by their opponents. And, I was fascinated by Rich Abel's response and contribution; he pointed out that "Politicians may play to our assumptions, as well as to our fears or insecurities, as a way to manipulate us to support them knowing that we won't take the time to think through or gather evidence to support their contentions"(1/12/2011).

Fro Rich Abel's contribution, what resonated with me really, especially because of my interest in Leadership and Fear was his words 'they may play to our fears or insecurities as a way to manipulate us to support them'. Generally I think, when people are 'fearful' or even 'insecure' chances are that they may make decisions basing on their predicament (what will happen to them and so on). This may also go hand in hand, with what was postulated by Charles F. Stanley, he said 'Fear stifles our capacity to think clearly and rationally'. I would think, it is in light of this understanding that in legal terms or in jurisprudence they refer to what is called "undue influence" as a possible defense. Undue influence (as a term in jurisprudence) involves one person taking advantage of a position of power over another person and, in this situation 'free will to bargain is not possible'.

I think fear,takes away freedom of choice, and I do not think a fearful person has that capacity to bargain and their decisions may need to be judged in light of their surrounding circumstances.

(Charles F. Stanley: http://www.intouch.org/myintouch/exploring/studies/pressures/lesson6/index 345899.html, 10/06/2007).
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I am failing to get hold of Kurt regarding how he converted his blog into pdf if you get in touch with him please if you could ask him for me if you see him this weekend.