The Politics of Fear
The Politics of Fear: Much has been written on how fear is used to manipulate, yet few seem to take the time to think about whether their fear is based on real time event (e.g. a man with a gun pointing it at you) or whether the fear is built from images or stories of others (manufactured fear). Statistics make it clear that infrequent events (e.g. a man with gun, a terrorist attack) will cause more irrational fear than, say, smoking, something which will very likely will lead to serious illness and possible premature death.
February, 2015. This post is brought forward as the amount of ‘fear mongering’ (mainly on terrorism in the present day) has increased exponentially as the Conservatives get ready for an election. Today, February 27, six pages of the National Post carried terror related stories. It has been much the same over the past several weeks as preparations were made for introducing a new terror bill. Several months back when crime legislation was on the agenda, the fear mongering included ‘crime, drugs and sex offenders’. Murdered, missing and abused aboriginal women (an ongoing crime problem) barely rated a mention by the government or the press. More will be said on that in an upcoming post.
First, this earlier post:
The following excerpts were taken from recent Conservative Party Fundraising letter as reported by Scott Stinson in National Post 
November 1, 2011 (page A6):
“What happened (what is happening on our streets)? Far too many parents have been asking me this question year after year. Canadian families deserve to feel safe in their homes. They deserve to feel safe letting their children play in the front yard, or walk to school. But, they second guess themselves: should I let my children go to their friends’ homes?
“We are finding that crimes involving drugs and child sexual exploitation are on the increase, and we need to give our hardworking police the tools to make our streets safer.”
“Our Government is fulfilling our commitment to take action to protect families and hold criminals accountable. But the opposition are in constant attack mode, and we need your contribution to help families feel safer in their homes and communities, and remove criminals from our streets.” (John Walsh, Federal Conservative Party President) (Bold and underlined as printed in the flyer)
In his assessment, Stinson goes on to state:
“Not too subtle, that. It’s not quite: ‘We will protect you while the opposition would rather leave you for dead,” but it’s close. That emphasis isn’t mine, by the way. It is a rich irony that the Conservatives are accusing the other parties of being in “constant attack mode.”
There is a vast difference between presenting reasonable arguments for or against a given subject than using fear in an attempt to have others support your position. If you don’t support the Conservatives you will likely end up murdered or raped or as one Minister put it when promoting new laws relating to sexual offences: “If you are not with us you are with the pedophiles.”
Scare tactics do nothing to make for “safe streets and communities”, in fact they have just the opposite effect. When people begin to believe that perverts, internet prowlers, druggies and murderers are lurking on-line, in every alley and on every street corner citizens will actually feel less safe on their street and in their community. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Unfortunately the tactic is likely to succeed and far to many honest, hardworking folks will donate $50 or $100 to ‘fight the evil empire’ (e.g. Criminals and Opposition Parties).
For a full discussion of why Bill C-10, the “Safe Streets and Communities Act”, does little to make for safer and communities go to: Crime and Punishment: Ideology Trumps Reason
Take a moment to express your displeasure with any political party that employs scare tactics to influence your behaviour or in an attempt to have you to contribute to their party coffers.
Harold McNeill
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