by K.M Phippen
Those familiar with stress in all of its manifestations will recognise that the “Fight or Flight” response so accurately described by Hans Selye [1] is initiated when individuals believe themselves to be unable to cope with a situation or situations that threaten their safety. The feelings of fear generated by this response often lead people to react by either reaching for the most familiar coping solution - sadly for many individuals the coping solutions involve activities or substances that temporarily mask the feelings – drugs, nicotine, inappropriate behaviours,etc, etc.
Their conditioned or learned response forces them towards these tried and tested solutions. Unfortunately as with all quick “fixes” the fear returns once the effects of the temporary solution decline. Sadly with certain coping mechanisms such as narcotics the fear often returns at a perceived higher level. For example the paranoia associated with long-term cannabis use is well documented [2] as is the tendency for a continual increase in the amount, or level, of “self medication” required to achieve an effective blanking of the fear. Or addiction as its more commonly known. All such quick fixes are modern society equivalents to the “Flight” response. The drug users “High” being our modern day “Flight” as the hormones Dopamine & Adrenaline combine [3]
However the purpose of this paper is not to examine the symptoms of stress, or indeed the inapropropriate coping mechanisms, it is to raise concern over the promotion of “root cause fears”
Before exploring this it is important to understand that the effects of such root cause activities is having a potentially catastrophic effect upon our society. Here are just some of the many examples
Whether we examine the world of work or alternatively the social activities of people the message is constant. For example Grant Thornton’s 2005 International Business Owners Survey found that 40% of business owners worldwide are much more stressed than just a year ago. Research with more than 6,000 business owners in 24 countries shows that stress levels rocketed by more than a third [4]. In another ground breaking study the Government's drugs and treatment assessment body, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) says Britain is facing a spiralling epidemic of self-harm [5].
Shocking new figures indicate that more than 170,000 people a year - most of them teenagers and young adults - seek hospital treatment after deliberately hurting themselves in apparent expressions of despair. The research findings went on to conclude that “the number of total years of life lost due to different conditions, self-harm and suicide was third only to heart disease and cancer”.
Cocaine abuse in Britain has reached levels similar to the US A study published by the EU's drugs monitoring centre based in Lisbon says 5% to 7% of Britons aged 15 to 24 have used the class A drug recently, with levels in towns and cities likely to be "substantially higher".[6]
The report says these levels of cocaine abuse - twice the average elsewhere in Europe apart from Spain - are being driven by the drug's "positive street image", plentiful supplies and its short-term effects fitting a modern lifestyle.
Have you ever wondered why? Why we should be experiencing these effects? What are the “Root Causes” of this epidemic?
In essence the question has to be this “Why are more people worried than they used to be?”
Why should stress have increased in comparative terms when our lives have, according to popular belief, become much easier? Surely our standards of living have markedly improved! Gone are the days when masses of people had to toil in inhumane conditions simply to survive. The threats of east west conflict have all but gone away. Everyone now has an abundance of easily available food. Many previously fatal conditions are now routinely cured by modern medicine. So why are more stressed?
Could it possibly be that those charged with providing responsible governance and leadership to society are in fact engaged in a very dangerous and potentially catastrophic experiment? An experiment about control and manipulation without regard for everyday life. An experiment started to influence short-term electioneering but with potentially devastating consequences over time? Sadly the evidence points in this direction. Before looking at the evidence it might help if I explained the simple principles involved. Long ago people realised that large groups could be controlled and manipulated by using fear as a tool. People would always follow the knight who slew the mystical dragon.
As manipulative schemes go the dragon scenario works very well. This is how it works
create a mythical creature and convince everyone who listens that this creature is evil, fearsome, and that it will consume the very souls of those who cast eyes upon it
When asked where it is, what it is, or how it came to be simply continue preaching doom and destruction for mere mortals (it is important to stress your own godliness at this point). If anyone asks for proof tell them of the horrors that await them should they ever set eyes upon it. When doubters persist explain that you are protecting their interests by not revealing the evidence
When you have convinced them that the horror exists by repeatedly reinforcing the same message, it’s a good idea to enlist the help of some supporters to reinforce the mindset, then set yourself up as the champion. The only one who can rid the world of this terrible dragon.
Once you have established a remit (an election, any apparently democratic process helps as it gives you an agreed period of time after you have slain the dragon to changes the rules to your advantage) then go forward and slay the dragon. Remember this is a fairly simple process as the creature never ever existed. You may need to resort to some theatrical effects. Loud noises, perhaps even deliberate sacrifice of some followers, before returning triumphant.
If you are asked afterwards to show proof of the dragon’s demise explain that it would be too horrific for ordinary people to witness. Convince them it is in their interests for everyone to keep it secret, not to discuss it further. Then set about your true mission of manipulating the group for your own needs.
At any time during the post-slaying period if unrest occurs simply create another dragon. Try “Oh my god, it had a mate, and it is far more terrible than the first” then repeat the scheme.
The possibilities are endless. If you have a problem with the symbolic use of animals simply replace the dragon with another myth. Hell for instance has worked for many years in certain fundamental religions. Offer the people salvation from a place so so terrible, oh, and as an added incentive give them an alternative vision, a place where your every wish will come true. Just remember to reinforce the need for YOU to remove the pain and offer the salvation! Not into religion? How about phantoms, shady individuals or groups that nobody ever sees. Create the myth of their power and the havoc these awful people can cause. Put them in the dragon’s role, then slay them.
Merely conjecture? Think about the many alternatives to dragons that societies are force fed each day! Struggling with abstract concepts? Here are some real examples
The preacher sat behind his microphone. It was Sunday morning and his words travelled across the airwaves to thousands of radios tuned in to hear his "words of wisdom". "The great floods that ravaged America in the summer were sent by God to punish this nation because it allows abortions. As long as babies are murdered, God in his righteousness will send His wrath against this nation." On this point I personally advocate subscription to the view expressed by Dave Berry who said “when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on Satellite TV with a bad hairstyle” [7].
It was not so long ago that another group used these same tactics to inspire loyalty and acts of violence from their followers. It was 1933 and again the words traveled across the airwaves to the thousands of radios across the nation, tuned in to hear the "wisdom" of their leader. "The Jews are a lower form of life, yet they have held our beloved Germany in thrall. The Jewish parasites have plundered the nation without pity. For this race, the misfortune of our people is an end in itself." And so the propaganda of this group, the Nazi party, continued using all forms of communication at their disposal: press, radio, children's books, posters and hand bills. For 17 years they battered the air waves and the bookstores, playing on fears and frustrations, calling for action and then presenting a single target on which to vent the hate and violent action. Hitler's propaganda minister declared, "Propaganda must be essentially simple and repetitious and the single simple message is, 'The Jews are to Blame for everything'." This play on words repeated often enough creates in the minds of those who listen the image of a monster, or dragon that must be destroyed. It is the first step to advocating and subliminally encouraging violence. PLAYING ON FEAR Playing on fear is just the first step. The fear is then channelled into hate: hate for something despicable, something lower than life, to make it okay to kill. The Nazis did this by producing films that portrayed Jews as villainous caricatures. To give the violence legitimacy it is called a "Holy War". Hitler called the Nazi movement a "Holy War against the Jews". In Hitler's "Holy War", he creates a "crusade of hate", invents an emotional language, evokes new myths, creates martyrs out of murderers, and patriots out of brutes. He rewards those who meekly submit to his will with illusions that they are important by following God's word. In his speeches (dramatic oratories as podium thumping and ranting as a fundamentalist preacher-general), he portrays the Nazis as those who will "SAVE Germany", "maintain Christianism", and "bring back respect for traditions". In Hitler's symbolic oratory are oft-repeated platitudes: - To be Nazi is to be good, to be God's chosen, to be superior to all others. - To be Nazi is to change society to fit this way of life and to eliminate or dominate all those who don't "fit in" with the "chosen few" - To doubt is to be blasphemous, to disagree is to be against God's chosen, to be Un-Christian, Un-Patriotic. In the Nazis case they choose to combine the dragon slaying with the fundamentalist approach.
In _Mein Kampf_, the Nazi Bible, Hitler based Nazi philosophy on several key points: - German Aryans are God's chosen people, all others are chaff and inferior. - The symbol of evil assumes the shape of the Jew. - The enemy must be destroyed in a just and righteous Holy War. - Terror will always succeed unless opposed by equal terror [8].
Hopefully by now you can appreciate the power of fear. It does not take a great deal of imagination to compare the current political messages with those of the immediate past. Some examples: Poet Michael Blumenthal, returning to the United States after three years living in Europe, found "a frightened and frightening nation, a nation filled not with generosity and humanity and decency and charity," a nation "that seems unable to find any deeper reason for its patriotism than a profound, and cynically manipulated atmosphere of anxiety and fear." [9] Former assistant and speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, Theodore Sorenson, in a speech in May 2004 warned of the damage being done to the "very heart and soul of this country" as it moves "toward a mean-spirited mediocrity in place of a noble beacon." [10]
Many believe that Vice President Cheney "crossed the line" when he said that if American voters chose John Kerry instead of George Bush "we'll be hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States." He stated during the recent US election campaign [11]
With the UK government choosing to follow the “politics of fear” approach we are increasing able to witness similar manipulation with the British political arena. Commenting on the record of so called “anti-crime” legislation by the Labour Government (the total number of anti-crime bills introduced since the 2001 general election is 34 - more than one for every month that parliament has been sitting) [12] Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights group Liberty, shared his concern: "Tough talk and tougher legislation is cheap. It doesn't make us any safer from crime, terrorism and the other great causes of fear. What it will do is to undermine the very democracy that this government and its allies across the Atlantic say they want to defend." she stated [13]
There are many many examples that could be given. It does not take a terribly wise person to appreciate that the “politics of fear” approach, the “dragon slaying”; “religious fundamentalist” or whatever spin version politicians choose to role out next is having and will continue to have a detrimental effect upon our society. A society where the vast majority are manipulated into seeking champions based upon the mythical creations of those very same pretenders.
Sadly long after the politics have moved forward, after the politicians have reaped the rewards of their agendas, the people, you and I, are left with the derititious aftermath. The children raised in a climate of fear whose learned responses are not appropriate for making the most of their opportunities or those of the next generation.
The politics of fear sadly create the very bedrock upon which the symptoms breed and grow. The symptoms of “Flight or Fright”, the drug abuse, the instances of suicide, the inappropriate habits of the next generation.
This paper emphasises the propensity of our modern politicians to act with disregard for society in order to illustrate the point. However, it is not the intention of the author to seek to create fear through the illustrations herein.
In fact entirely the opposite applies.
The “politics of fear” promotes fear. Actual fear, real threats are, in the main, A MYTH . YES there are terrorist attacks. YES there are bad people who seek to hurt others as a means of promoting their own agenda. Thankfully they are a very small minority. The risks to our safety are grossly exaggerated. The real concern for the vast majority of good, well intentioned people should be the “self proclaimed” saviours who by their very actions do little to save and much to undermine society.
They are the underlying root cause of the rise in stress levels.
Furthermore because the ability to manipulate large groups of people can be increased when those same groups feel most vulnerable then it is highly unlikely that governments will provide any effective solutions. There will be hollow rhetoric, there will be apparent concern, and there will be measures that purport to address the issue but in reality are thinly disguised fudges.
So what can be done?
Well it’s not a new or unknown issue. For many thousands of years the myths of dragons have been used to promote fear. This is as old as life itself. The earliest philosophers in Ancient Greece challenged the effects upon society of the religious traditions of the day. Epicuris, declared clearly that: “The superstitious fear of hellfire was a major cause of human misery in the here-and-now” Seneca, one of the leading lights in philosophy wrote an essay -On the Shortness of Life – in it he drew attention to the fact that people often don't enjoy their lives fully. He wrote: “The majority of mortals complain bitterly of the spitefulness of nature, because we are born for such a brief span of life, because even this space that has been granted to us rushes by so speedily and so swiftly that all save a very few find life at an end just when they are getting ready to live” That was the stick. Then came the carrot. “Yet the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it” [14] I think what Seneca meant here was simply that so many people spend so much of their lives living in fear that they often fail to appreciate or enjoy life. He urged his readers to reconsider their lives giving more concern for real values and priorities. His advocacy of a balance between application and hedonism was not unlike the modern day calls for better “work-life balance”
I guess that is the great tragedy of fear. People spend so much of their lives worrying about the possibilities of some mystical dragon that they fail to appreciate or enjoy their lives. Sad but true.
Bertrand Russell, in his book The Conquest of Happiness, set forth the Stoic dictum in modern terms. "I believe," he wrote, "unhappiness to be very largely due to mistaken views of the world, mistaken ethics, mistaken habits of life . . ." [15]
The first job of the stress counsellor, the recovery group leader, the youth club leader, even the social reformer, then, is to install a strong desire for living life NOW. By way of example, we can we look around us today and see many people living life on what might be called the "hire purchase method" Children commonly say, "Just wait until I grow up." Students can't wait until they finish school and leave home so they can begin to live as they like. Young people look forward to the time when they will be married. Then they'll be happy. When married they look ahead to owning their own home. Then they'll be happy. When winter comes, they look to Spring. If they have children they say, "When the kids grow up and leave home, then we'll be able to do what we want." Of course there's still the job. So they look to retirement as the time to live.
Seneca denounced this attitude in the strongest language: “Are you not embarrassed to reserve for yourself only the remnant of life, and to set apart only that time which cannot be devoted to any business? . . . What foolish forgetfulness of mortality to postpone wholesome plans to the fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life at a point which not all have even attained!"[14]
Seneca believed that we can live now, every day, can find our meaning and joy at this time, not some other. Don't wait for happiness, he argued, create it.
He for one would not be hoodwinked by fundamentalist opinions. By the “spin doctoring” of modern day dragons. His opinions and thoughts were written many years ago but are as relevant to the issues of today as they were in ancient times.
The root causes of Stress in society rest firmly with those who use the politics of fear to control. However the trick only works if the vast majority believe in this trick. The roots may lie in political manipulation but the realities of fear, the manifestations, are generally self-created. The solution - DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ, INCLUDING THIS! UNLESS THE EVIDENCE SUPPORTS THE TRUTH!
There are certain things you can always believe, things written in pure thought. Believe things like this. It’s a piece of poetry from another ancient and wise society. From India’s fabled past. It is called “The Salutation to the Dawn”
If we increasingly welcome each day with words like these, we would have less time to complain that life was short, and would rarely become focused on irrational ideas. We would be too busy living our happiness.
“Look to this day! For it is life, the very life of life, In its brief course Lie all the varieties and realities of your existence: The bliss of growth The glory of action The splendour of achievement For yesterday is but a dream And tomorrow is only a vision, But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness And every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day! Such is the salutation to the dawn”
References.
[1] The general adaption syndrome and the diasese of adaption: J Clin Endocrinal, Hans Selye 1946
[2] Cannabis use, paranoia effects: Published papers, Adams & Martin 1996, Joy et Al 1999
[3] Phantoms In The Brain: Professor VS Ramachandran, Reith Lectures 1993
[4] 2005 International Business Owners Survey (IBOS): Grant Thornton, January 2005
[5] National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) Report: Dr Tim Kendall, July 2004
[6] EU Drug Monitoring Centre Report: Paul Griffiths et Al, November 2004
[7] 19 things it took me 50 years to learn: Dave Barry 1996
[8] Body Politic Issue: March 1994 Title: Politics of Fear - The Use of Nazi Strategies by Anti-Choice Groups : Richard R. Belton 1993
[9] All my Mothers and Fathers , A Memoir: Michael Blumenthal, 2002
[10] Speech given at conference on the Bush campaign: Theodore Sorenson, Nebraska 2004
[11] "Fear: Its Political Uses and Abuses" : Conference Proceedings: New School University, New York 2004
[12] Hansard Reports: UK Government Proceedings 2004
[13] Press Release, Liberty Organisation: Shami Chakrabarti 2004
[14] Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium: Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Viking Press, 1969
[15] The Conquest of Happiness: Bertrand Russell 1958