I think this one from Answers.Com may be interesting to sample.
Who said people should not fear the government, government should fear the people? In: Founding Fathers, United States History, US Constitution [Edit categories]
Thomas Jefferson.
The actual quote by Jefferson is "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
A variation of this was written by Alan Moore in the V for Vendetta comic book series in the late 1980s (which was made into a movie in 2005). The quote in this was: "People should not fear their government. Government should fear their people."
From Jefferson's quote, I sense the idea of accountability on the part of the government which a great idea, but unfortunately the opposite/reverse is true in some parts of the world today. As soon as people are sworn into those government offices sometimes they surround themselves with a lot of power and authority to such an extent that it may become extremely difficult for them to fear or even respect opinions of anyone (the civilian/ masses) particularly the same people that elected them into those offices. I have heard of cases where some people in government would even try to manipulate certain clauses in the Constitution so that they may be extremely feared by the ordinary people. How about that?
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_said_people_should_not_fear_the_government_government_should_fear_the_people#ixzz1Bo89zVQU
What I wonder is: In what ways is "political fear" different from fear of physical or psychological violence?
ReplyDeleteAnd in what ways are they the same?
It becomes a kind of intellectual exercise....definitional and conceptual.
Looking at particular instances/cases/situations provides (perhaps) a more discriminating senses of "how to use the word".
I think it was Aristotle who had a list of virtues....courage being one of them. Then his analysis of it ran from an excess of it to the deficiency of it. Courage, enacted, for Aristotle was the "golden mean" between the extremes.
Can there be healthy "fear"? And then the other extreme is debilitating fear? And there is a desirable "golden mean" of it? A prudent and practical exercise of it? Or is this just playing with words. Perhaps using fear in a way that it's never used?
I've heard of righteous fear. But I have always imagined this is exercised on others by "moral leaders" of various kinds. The righteous fear of god. Something Marx would have disdained. But many people I know these days are moved, changed by this kind of "fear". Fear of going to hell.
These are real beliefs for many people. Fears that move them....perhaps not through threat of present violence....but of an afterlife of it?
Just thinking more about how we use this word.....
Today I have fear of cold as I go out to snowshoe....
We shall see.....
I appreciate what Proverbs 28:28 says that "When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish the righteous thrive."Proverbs 28: 3 says "A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops". The emphasis is on the accountability of the leader towards his people. The actions of the government bring fear or joy to the people.If a government is tyrannical and brutal, people are bound to burn with the fear of hunger, diseases, violence and preventable deaths
ReplyDeletePolitical fear is the deadliest of all fears.Just imagine the results produced by political violence let alone when it is structural violence-where when the victims of violence report a case, they are the ones who get arrested. Just imagine the trauma of political violence where children see their mother or sister being raped in their face or seeing your loved being forced to take off their clothes and beaten up whilst naked.What kind of hope, healing happiness can one bring that will make victims of violence see life as worthy living. What new lease of life and hope can one give such people so that they will not have any fear again particularly when the cloud of violence is still hovering over their heads.When the perpetrators have not or do not see it worthy to apologise for their violent actions.
ReplyDeleteA careful analysis of "how we perceive fear" I think is useful. This I think has been a theme on and off throughout the blog. What's most important I think is that how each of us personally has encountered fear of various kinds...doesn't really inform a generalized use of the concept "fear". Such that "political fear" is only slightly better than (as an analytic phrase) than "fear" itself. Political fear in some countries has I think a very strong physical violence dimension. In the USA, when we are not shooting people in the head, which is certain physical violence of a certain kind, we generally resort to more overt forms of psychologically created fear. Meaning: we make people fearful when there is nothing to fear (there is no treat of physical violence). But in this view or perspective, the "effect" of the perception of fear (whether psychological or literally physical) can sometimes be the same. A common response might be a person's withdrawal from public life or any situation where they might feel threatened.
ReplyDeleteHow various religions/belief-systems do and don't incorporate version of fear into their transactions is also of interest. In these cases....the "fear" that exists is closely related to belief....say about "going to hell" for being a sinner of some sort.
In the end....I find that the concept of fear, even refined with prefixes like political, religious and physical....isn't specific enough to be useful in any kind of study that what's to characterize how people act/behave/think in a more general way.