Akkam’s Razor

I found myself looking up quotations today to add to my quotes page.  They seem to be along a similar theme.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

-Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) 

The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt 

From What the Terrorists Want…

The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.

-Bruce Schneier 

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

-Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) 

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

-Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972)

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

-Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), to Archibald Stuart, 1791

"Even if there's just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable coming due, act as if it is a certainty. It's not about 'our analysis,' as Cheney said. It's about 'our response.' … Justified or not, fact-based or not, 'our response' is what matters. As to 'evidence,' the bar was set so low that the word itself almost didn't apply."

-Ron Suskind, speaking on Vice President Dick Cheney's Philospohy of Preemptive War

What is it about our fear-based culture that allowed us to get into this mess?  How did we walk into Iraq?  How does it seem that we're going to be doing the same thing in Iran?  How did we suddenly become cattle on airplanes?  Not allowed to take pictures on public transportation?  Having our communications and financial activities monitored?  How did we become a nation living in fear?

Most people are notoriously risk-averse, that is to say, if given the choice between two alternatives, they will prefer the one that presents the smallest opportunity for risk, even if it simoultaneously offers the most opportunity for gain.  And it's definite that the thought of dying a horrible, gorey death at the hands of an Islamofacist will stick out in one's mind as a greater threat than say, taking a bath.  But strangely enough, we have not declared war or changed the very pace of our lives in response to the automobile, lightning, or buffalo wings.

Fear has been a part of our culture ever since the disciplines of advertising and psychology formed their unholy union.  Get ready for a momentous "A-Ha!" moment…

The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays (wiki), founded the public realtions industry in the United States.  He said the following in his 1928 book, Propaganda (via AmericanIdealism):

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country… We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized…”

Psychology gave us insight into our emotions and how they effect behavior.  Marketing and advertising gave others the power to marry that understanding to consumer behavior.  And by leveraging the effect that those things have had on our culture, those in power have been able to redefine truth by playing to our biases and fears.

We fear being different.  We fear being the same.  We fear that which is different.  We fear the unknown.  We fear loss.

Too fat?  Wear vertical stripes.  Too light skinned?  How about some tan in a can.  Don't feel masculine enough?  Have a Hummer.  Jonses have a nicer yard then you?  Take out a home equity loan and get a pool.

They call it hot button marketing.  I learned it in car sales, and later in financial sales.  For cars, we presented the qualities of the products in six categories: SPACED - Safety, Performance, Appearance, Comfort, Economy, Durability.  All of the -PACED attributes are different from person to person, based on what they were looking for in a car, something that flattered their own ego and self image (performance or appearance, or frugality via economy or durability).  But safety's a no-brainer.  No one looks for an unsafe car.

You would especially pull the safety card if you knew a couple things.  Got a parent with children in front of you?  Or better yet, a pregnant woman, or parent buying a car for a child?  Or the best of all, a person replacing a car that had been totaled in an accident?  You want to lay on the safety features hard - crumple zones, airbags, and side impact door beams.  But strangely enough, antilock brakes and traction control wouldn't sell.  Odds are, the average person gets into an accident once every 7-years, or 84,000 miles of driving.  You use ABS if your car is equipped probably 5-10 times per year.  But the odds of a horrific crash stick out in your mind far more than the odds that ABS would keep you from skidding into the intersection or Traction Control keeping you from spinning out on the highway.  Although it's cheaper and more effective to avoid the accident, the focus is on surviving the accident.

There are things which are natural to fear, yet we go through life either having conquered them or with the realization that there's nothing we can do about it.  It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees.