Category: Fear

What do you expect when you are watching a horror movie? The movie can scare you, right? But fear is not a very good thing. Knowing this, why do we still want to see this movie? Or suppose you are riding a roller coaster at a theme park. So, as much as a rider and friend of a ride, the more you will feel, but at the same time, you expect that from a good roller coaster ride. The question arises, why do we want to be afraid knowingly, why do we really enjoy fear?

Fear is not just a psychological problem, if we are afraid, we also have many changes in our physical condition. To understand why we love to fear, we must understand what we fear in our brain and body. Generally, when we are afraid, we can see an increase in our heart rate, rapid breathing, ghee, and stiffness. But these sources are created from our brains. When we are afraid, our amygdala (a small part in the middle of the brain) sends signals (ANS) to our autonomic nervous system, which causes some small changes in the brain. At this moment, several stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, are present in the brain. As a result, our heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, and breathing becomes faster. As a result of increased heart rate, blood flow increases in different organs, including hands and feet. As a result of this, when we are scared, our hands and feet become tough and we want to run away. The persecution of animals and humans in the primitive age was a very necessary trend because otherwise we would not have been able to avoid various dangers. But there is one more change in the brain that is negative for us. When fear is felt in the amygdala, the cerebral cortex of our brain, which is the reason for our argument and intelligence, stops working. This reduces the ability to judge our situation. That’s why when we feel fear, we make wrong decisions and we can not do complex work. But like humans, our fears and nature are different. Therefore, our physical changes are not the same in all fears. In some cases, some chemical reactions can occur in our bodies that can give us pleasure.

Studies show how we are not afraid and how dependent our sympathetic nervous system is active or inactive. If the work of the sympathetic nervous system is in danger, our body will not fight or run the fight. When the fight or flight response is triggered, some of our hormones are released in our body, which helps us to defend ourselves, increasing our muscular strength and speed. With this, we determine the frontal lobe of our cerebral cortex, the brain’s logic, thinking, and intelligence, and what we will fear if we get fear. Those whose sympathetic nervous system is very active may scream or run if they put their hand in the dark room. Again, whose frontal lobe is more active, there will be no change in the fear of horror.

The frontal lobe as the main part of the brain is the result of our evolution. In this section, the work of suppressing our primordial instincts and thinking of intellectual thinking has started. So if we fear, our primitive instincts are when our body commands us to escape or to fight, the frontal lobe helps us to think about possible ways other than flight and fight. So very reasonable people are often less likely to get scared. In this case, a very old thing can be remembered: we are afraid of what we do not know or understand. The opposite of this statement is also true: we are not afraid of what we know. But this understanding of the body and brain is not the same for all. It is not the same for all fears. We can get a little bit to enjoy by the immediate fear. Many of us find pleasure in the field and want to get rid of those fears again and again. But that’s why?

When we watch a horror movie or ride on a rider, we already know that we’re scared and such fear is very momentary, usually, there is no fear when the scary part is over. After finishing a very scary horror movie, don’t you feel a little stupid to worry about this little thing? In such situations, fear will take you to expect. But there is a strange thing in it, you are getting scared, and also know that there is nothing to fear about it. So here the fight or flight response wins, then who sake for the fight? In this case, your frontal lobe wins in combat with your sympathetic nervous system. The phenomenon is frightening to you, but at the same time your frontal lobe is telling you that there is no danger, fear is temporary. Your brain is in a hurry, on the verge of danger, but in real danger. That is why the sympathetic nervous system is active, but the fight or flight response is not active, and behind it’s the mystery of enjoying fear.

Transient fears are often quite enjoyable for us. The reason is that our sympathetic nervous system is active, but due to the intervention of the frontal lobe, the fight or flight response is not introduced and the hormones of self-defense are not released. We love this kind of fear and want to get it again and again because of the hormone emission. Because of the kind of happiness we enjoy, researchers have compared it with sex, since in that case, the process of hormonal emission is almost the same. That’s why many people become fearless like this, that’s why we often enjoy fear and go back to our horror movie, haunted house, and roller coaster again and again.

How Powerful Is Fear? From the dawn of human evolution to the contemporary world, fear has served a powerful role in the lives of humans. The ancestors of humans have faced danger in the form of predatory animals. Today, humans don’t have to fear threats such as large animals, but these fears have developed into an innate instinct transferred from generation to generation. In the modern-day, fear is a powerful force that allows individuals to manipulate large groups of people for personal benefit, as well as being an excellent personal motivator in one’s daily life. Other than allowing humans to detect predatory animals, fear is powerful when it is utilized by leaders and advertisers to influence large masses of people.

Dictators utilize artificial threats to impose fear upon their people to ensure sovereignty. The reason for this is as stated, “Manufacturing an external threat, like Jews to Hitler’s Germany, or the entire West for Kim, help keep the society off balance and collectively paranoid as well”, (Eric Miller, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45751914/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/how-dictators-keep-control/#.XYe7jS2ZNao). Through this, dictators can psychologically command their people by convincing their people that a dangerous threat is present. Furthermore, advertisers can utilize the fear of their consumers to promote a cause or product. This form of advertising is often used to convince people to appraise and reform behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and other hazardous behaviors. This type of advertising is also utilized in political campaigns.

Candidates can either encourage voters to vote for themselves or reject other candidates, by suggesting a large-scale threat that they can solve or the candidate will incite. This was utilized in the ‘Daisy’ ad by Lyndon B. Johnson during his presidential campaign. Through the use of clever advertising and propaganda, people can be easily influenced to believe they are under a severe threat or change their behaviors completely. Fear is powerful as it serves as an excellent motivator, encouraging individuals to grow and develop through their decisions. Fear allows an individual to recognize potential behaviors that are detrimental by realizing the potential consequences that will await them if they continue. Similar to advertising, if one is educated on the health risks associated with smoking, they will be motivated to quit smoking to better their lives. While fear pushes people out of their comfort zone in unique and exciting ways, fear is most effective if the change is reasonable and can be performed easily. The fear of failing an exam can be easily solved by studying for the exam, however, a fear of rejection and loneliness is one that one may be reluctant to approach or solve.

Fear can serve as a powerful motivator allowing someone to change their lives for the better while becoming a more adaptive and determined individual in the process. Fear is a powerful emotion that can be utilized in a multitude of ways to control or change individuals for either the better or the worse. From dictators to religious leaders and advertisers, fear can be used by different people to accomplish different things, one of them being motivation. The ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ response is still as powerful as when our ancestors used to avoid predators, whether it is used positively or negatively it progresses us into someone that we weren’t before.

Work Cited

1. Niiler, Eric. “How Dictators Keep Control.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 21 Dec. 2011, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45751914/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/how-dictators-keep-control/#.XYe7jS2ZNao. 

Introduction

In the study of psychology, research has always looked at emotions and the role they play in everyday behaviour as well as in pathological behaviour. Several studies have shown that emotionally charged stimuli attract human attention quicker and have an advantage in information processing. Stimuli that are emotionally negative in nature tend to grab attention automatically and more quickly (Wieser, 2010). When studying emotions in social situations, more often than not researchers tend to use facial expressions. Facial expressions allegedly tend to be significant in an evolutionary sense and are also distinctively processed and one of the advantages is that they represent universally identifiable emotions. This makes facial expressions a strong tool to study emotions. Past research has shown that angry facial expressions are perceived as threating stimuli and have the ability to activate the human fear system (Ohman, 1986; Ekman, 1976).

Neuroscientific models assume that emotion driven responses like anxiety and fear are based in a motivational defence circuit (Duits, 2015). The amygdala has a very central position and is closely connected to the subcortical structures like the thalamus and hippocampus and cortical structures like the temporal, prefrontal and orbito cortices, all of which are crucial for fear conditioning (LeDoux, 2000). The amygdala plays an important role in fear conditioning processes and shows increased activity for conditioned stimulus paired with aversive stimulus (CS+) compared to conditioned stimulus not paired with any aversive stimuli (CS-) (LaBar, 1998). Most fear conditioning studies use a fear condition paradigm that consists of phases. The acquisition phase is when the conditioned stimulus is paired with the aversive or fearful stimulus (CS+), this is also known as the fear acquisition training. A result of this is that fear learning takes place and a conditioned response (CR) is derived to the conditioned stimulus. When the aversive stimuli are no longer presented with the conditioned stimulus the process of extinction training begins (Lonsdorf, 2017). Few studies have looked at the main characteristics of learning mechanisms with patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (Ahrens, 2014). A functional magnetic resonance imaging study found increased activity in the amygdala and hippocampus in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) when shown neutral faces paired with an aversive odor (Schneider, 1999). A study conducted used faces and audiovisual stimuli, the researchers paired angry faces with insults, happy faces with compliments and neutral faces with neutral comments. They found that when compared to healthy controls, subjects with social anxiety disorder had an increased fear startle response to the angry faces paired with insults compared to the other two pairings (Lissek 2008).

Using angry faces in a fear conditioning model has its advantages wherein, angry faces elicit larger attentional resources much more quickly (Fox, 2000). Theoretically, anxiety and fear are linked to an increased preferred processing of angry facial expressions, especially in individuals who have social anxiety (Weiser, 2010).

Differences in local brain activation have been the focus in most fear conditioning studies done in the past. More recent studies look at the changes in cortical processing due to the acquired fear. The steady state visual evoked (ssVEP) is one such method that looks at response in cortical changes to visual stimuli (Vialette, 2010). These signals are usually generated in the occipital lobe as well as other higher order cortices. These signals can be accurately detached from noise and are study to movement artefacts as well as eye-blinks (DiRusso, 2007; Regan, 1989; Perlstein, 2003). Various studies have shown that ssVEPs are conscious towards emotional and attentional processes. They have also shown increased amplitude for stimulus that is attended to compared to stimulus unattended to as well as stimulus that are emotional in nature compared to neutral stimuli (Muller, 1997). For fear conditioning studies the ssVEP smplitudes are shown to increase for conditioned stimulus paired with aversive stimulus (CS+) compared to conditioned stimulus not paired with any aversive stimuli (CS-) (Moratti, 2005). This technique is very useful while researching visual cognition (Wieser, 2014; Wieser, 2016).

Prior research studies on social anxiety have used a public speaking task to help induce state anxiety. This task is proven to be reliable in inducing state-anxiety and enhanced physiological arousal (Wieser, 2010). Past research conducted by Weiser et al showed that fear of public speaking has an influence on individual’s early perceptual processing of faces, specifically angry faces. (Weiser, 2010). Does anxiety play a role in fear association? Does it take longer to dissociate fear in individuals who are anxious compared to controls?

The present research aims to investigate if participants under social stress show stronger fear learning in a fear conditioning paradigm with angry faces as compared to individuals who are not stressed. We expect that participants in the social stress group will show quicker fear learning for the angry faces, they will have increased ssVEP amplitude during acquisition for CS+. Individuals in the social stress group, their reaction to the CS+ will take longer to be extinct compared to the control group , that is their ssVEP amplitude for the CS+ face will be higher even in the extinction phase. Participants in the stress group will have higher subjective arousal ratings and lower subjective valence ratings for the CS+ face compared to the CS- face.

Methodology

Participants

The participants of the study will be first year bachelor’s students recruited from the Erasmus Behavioral Lab Research Administration System. They will receive course credit for participation. The subjects will be matched on age and gender. The estimated sample size will be sixty, with the control group and stress group having thirty participants each. Participants will be assigned to the groups randomly. Participants will be screened for any psychiatric illness or neurological illness especially epilepsy prior to being inducted into the study. If the participant reports the presence of any of these, they will not be included in the study.

Material

Participants will fill in the Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale(Heimberg, 1999) that measures social anxiety. The Spielberger State and Trait Anxiety Scale etzger, that measures state and trait anxiety. The Beck Depression Inventory Beck, 1988) that measures depression and the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale(Dugas, 1997). The questionnaires will be filled out online via the tool Qualtrics. There are two versions of the questionnaires English and Dutch and the versions will be given based on the participant’s first language. The participants will watch pictures of two angry faces on a computer screen. One angry face is always paired with a loud aversive sound (human scream plus white noise at 85dB which is played for 500ms). The faces are presented on the screen for 3 seconds flickering at 15Hz. The participants are then asked to rate these faces based on their emotional valence after every face trial. This response is recorded via the visual Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). The EEG is recorded using BioSemi Active-Two system from 64 pin-type active Ag/AgCl electrodes placed on an elastic cap. There were 4 electrodes used placed above the eye (1), below the eye (2) to record eye blinks, on both temples (3 & 4) to record horizontal eye movements. The recording frequency was used 512 Hz.

Research Design

The main research question aims to investigate if individuals under social stress show stronger fear learning in a fear conditioning paradigm with angry faces as compared to individuals who are not stressed. We expect that individuals in the social stress group will show quicker fear learning for the angry faces, they will have increased ssVEP amplitude during acquisition for CS+. Individuals in the social stress group, their reaction to the CS+ will take longer to be extinct compared to the control group. Individuals in the stress group will have higher subjective arousal and lower subjective valence ratings for the CS+ face compared to the CS- face. The research design for this study is a 2×2 mixed factorial design. There is one within subject factor which is type of conditioned stimulus (CS+ vs. CS-) and one between subjects factor, the stress group vs control group.

Procedure

The participants will be brought in, they will be first given an informed consent form to read and sign. The participants will be then told to fill in the questionnaires online in the lab. The questionnaires will act as a manipulation check to record if there are any changes in the participant’s state anxiety. After this they will be randomly assigned to the group (social stress or no social stress). The subjects in the social stress group will be told that after they finish the experiment, they will be asked to choose a topic from 3 given envelopes, they will have one minute to prepare and will have to speak on the topic in front of a camera that is recording (they will be shown the placement of the camera specifically). They will be evaluated on thought content, argumentation, vocabulary, posture and talking style. The participants in the no social stress group will be told that they have to pick one of 3 envelopes, they will have a minute to prepare and five minutes to write on the topic chosen. They would be evaluated on thought content and argumentation. After these they have to fill in another questionnaire online. They will then be taken into the EEB chamber, the electrodes will be attached. The experiment will then begin and will consist of three phases. The first phase is the habituation phase where subjects will see the two angry faces randomly presented 20 times each for 3 seconds flickering at 15Hz. The next phase is the conditioning phase where again the two faces are presented randomly 20 times each for 3 seconds flickering at 15Hz. This time one angry face is always paired with a loud aversive noise (human scream). The third phase of the experiment if the extinction phase where once again the subjects see the two angry faces presented randomly 20 times for 3 seconds at 15Hz but without the sound. After each trial in every phase the participants are asked to rate the faces on valence and arousal using SAM which appears on the screen and the subjects need to use the keyboard that will be provided to lock in their responses. The EEG and subjective responses will be recorded. At the end of the experiment the participants will be asked to wither perform the speech or write it based on the group. The purpose of the writing or talking speech task is to induce social anxiety, for the actual experiment none of the written or spoken material will be evaluated nor recorded.

Statistical Analysis

The research design is a mixed design containing one within subjects’ factor (CS+ vs CS-) and one between subjects’ factor (social stress vs control). A mixed design ANOVA will be used to analyze the EEG data which will be the ssVEP data. For the valence and arousal ratings a mixed ANOVA will be used as well. Additional analyses for the state anxiety scores comparison will be done using an independent t-test.

References

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Introduction

The term emotion indicates various enjoyable or distressing mental states. Emotions can be regarded as the indispensable faculty for acquiring knowledge. Through this paper I am trying to analyze how the emotions and feelings are related to acquiring knowledge. Emotions will expand our ideas. and they clearly play an important role in everyday challenges such as responding to threads and building relationships. But emotions also aid in other, more intellectual challenges for humans. Emotions motivates us to engage in new things that strain our knowledge of the world and how it works. According to functionalist theories of emotions, emotions help people to manage their important tasks.

Emotions and acquiring knowledge happen in the brain. Acquiring knowledge needs thinking. our thoughts influence how we feel, how we feel influences how we think. The connection between emotion and acquiring knowledge are complex. When we think about a happy incident our mood improves. When we think about an angry incident, we are likely to feel angry. Also, being in a happy mood leads us to think happy thoughts. The process of abstract thinking is treated as incompatible with emotional response. Emotion promotes rational decision making and in unregulated emotion are impediments to the rational life. each emotion makes a contribution to motivation. So emotions have an important factor to make rational decisions.

Philosophical concern about the emotions are often part of some layer epistemological ideas for eg: descartes wrote his treatise on the passions of soul , that emotions plays an awkward, between centre role in his two substance view of mind and body. A growing body of research findings indicates that a positive affects encourage us to adopt flexible style of things of images. While negative affect lead us to engage in systematic learning process.

The effect of moods have now been found using methods other than hypnosis, and now a wide range of evidences on this issues collected in many different type of experiences, moods, affects attention, problem solving imaginary , free association, social practices.

Emotion and reason, operate in tight harmony for the most part, intertwining their very different ways of knowing to guide us through the world. Ordinarily there is a balance between emotion and reason. With emotion feeding into and informing the operations of the reason and the reason refining. The emotion and reason are semi-independent faculties, each, as we shall see, reflecting the operations of distinct, but inter connected curiosity in the brain.

David Hume questioned the capacities and limitation of reason. He was uncompromising in its defence against any attempt to replace reason by irrational faith or to round ethics of universal and necessary dialectics of reason.

The emotion and feeling

Emotion is an affecting mental state of the animal organism, following the situation, characterized strong feeling by an impulse to action and by physiological change in bodily function.

Feelings are basically a part of emotion that breaks through into our awareness. A feeling is the sensation or bodily state that accompanies the experience of emotion. What we feel depends on our interest and attention at the moment of experiencing the emotion. If we are not attending to our emotion, we may not feel anything, but the emotion is still there. On the other hand, emotion refers deeper, underlying state that stirs or agitates us, whether or not we are aware of feeling. The term emotion, therefore, refers to the state of or being .feeling is hoe we experience that state and Feeling is an elementary affective state characterized by pleasantness.

It is unfortunate that we have also come to use the term feel to describe activities other than emotion. We “feel” with our hands. We even feels with our intellect as when we say “I feel that you have as much right to sit by the windows as he does.” It is not surprising to find that this multiple use of the word feel has contaminated our understanding of how to experience feeling. We often shortage ourselves because we don’t really understand the difference between the true feeling of an emotion and the many other things we “feel”. This many cause some people, especially men, to engage in intellectualizing or rationalizing and yet think they are” feeling”.

Plato and emotions

Plato also shows the importance of emotion to acquiring knowledge. In Phaedrus Plato portrayed emotions as the two horses of charoite. The charioteer is the controller,which is the reason . Here the emotions are not suppressed but directed by the reason. Actually, the horses have the prime role in the process of acquiring knowledge with the control of reason. Without the horses the charoite does not move further so without the horses the skill of charioteer is useless. so, without the emotions no reason can acquire knowledge.

The emotion Curiosity or interest and acquiring knowledge

Without the emotional curiosity /interest we would not have discovered many new knowledge in this world. Curiosity is an emotion which stimulates us to gain knowledge. It is a fact that many discoveries have been made that were actually accidently discovered. Most of the research is the result of interest/curiosity. If we would not to feel emotions as happiness, anger or curiosity we would not have any motivation to explore new things in the world. Interest involves appraisals of novelty: things that are unexpected, unfamiliar, novel and complex can evoke interest.

The function of the interest is to engage the people in to unfamiliar things. If they are not interested to the unfamiliar thing which remain as unfamiliar always. If they are interested it would make unfamiliar things appealing, motivate people to experience and think about new things. As a result, interest is an intrinsically motivated form of learning. Interest promotes faster, deeper and better learning. When people find the thing more interesting then they will engage with it more deeply and learn it. Interest makes learning process easy. When we are interested in a topic in a book the sentence and paragraphs are easier to remember. For example if we, the students, are interested in the science subjects we would choose science subjects to study in a degree course. And the interest toward the subject will lead us to acquiring further knowledge regarding the subject.

Confusion and acquiring knowledge

Confusion happens when people are learning something that is both unfamiliar and hard to understand. Confusion also promotes learning. It will lead them to know more about the unfamiliar thing. Confusion in learning needs to be about some educational material attempting to be understood by students.two students can experience the exact same educational conditions and interpret them in vastly different ways, leading one to be confused while the other experience no such response. The interaction between subjective experience and content knowledge has led to confusion being defined as’ ‘epistemic emotion”. When defined as epistemic emotion, confusion is considered to have both cognitive and affective components. confusion has both cognitive and affective components, what is less obvious is whether difficulties in learning that result in confusion are productive or unproductive in learning.

LOVE AND KNOWLEDGE AQUIRING

In platonic point of view love is considered as eros. which is erotic love . he says that eros is an educational agent. according to soctates he considered love or eros as a cosmic strenth that involves all beings. love desires somthing. the love relationship turn to lack somthimg, there for soctates /plato love is desire and desire is the need of what we lacks. inthe story of porus and penia the love knoledge relationship is depicted. porus is rich while penia is poor and beutyfull they mariied together when they are get together penia became pregnant of porus’s child eros. eros is the son of wealth and poverty. erose inherited the charecteristics of both .eron is neither beatiful nor ugly, eros is neither poor nor rich, neither wise (they have already wisdom) nor ignorant (they have not any wisdom) erose is in between them. so eros is lover of knowledge and eros searches the knowledge.eros knows what he ignore for being aware of his ignorance he desies knowledge. So eros/love also help to aquire knowledge.

Conclusion

Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes in humans, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem solving.Emotions has been regarded as the indispensable faculty for acquiring knowledge. mainly the emotions love, confusion interest and curiosity. They are the main source of acquiring knowledge. interest is one of the commonly experienced emotion in everyday life interest involves appraisals of novelty: things that are unexpected, unfamiliar, novel and complex can evoke interest.through the emotion of love we can learn more because if only we love a thing can learn more about the thing.so the role of emotions in acquiring knowledge is crucial.

America was built by several different people coming together for a common goal. The common goal between them was to be free. The United States is viewed as the melting pot. This means we have a variety of different people, races, beliefs, and languages here. With many different types of people perhaps we have more in common to bring us together then what divides us. The Washington Post, a newspaper company, sent interviewers and photographers across America to ask what unites us as Americans. With around 100 interviews accumulated the article, “What Unites Us?” was created. This gives seven core values that everyday American citizens claim what it means to be part of the United States. I have connected with three core values out of the seven. The first core value I connected with was Fear of the Future. The worry of our county’s success and our own personal success in life. The second value that struck me was Opportunity and Drive. Such a blessing to be able to make a life that we want to enjoy. Lastly, the third value I choose was Freedom and Fundamental Rights. Everyone has the same rights no matter the differences.

The first core value I chose was fear of the future. Fearing anything is natural for human nature. We fear our countries success and our own personal adventures being successful. However, fear cannot control us. We must keep working to move forward in our lives. In one interview about fearing of the future Jim Wolf gave his thoughts. He says, “Whether people are able to do the hard work, they still appreciate the fact that it’s hard work that kind of gets us the things that we want and the things that we need here” (“What Unites Us?”). I think what Mr. Wolf is trying to say is hard work is what built this country and what keeps it going. We might fear what is ahead but keep working hard. In the case of Nohemi Hernandez she talks about being an American. She says, “Limitations weren’t anything I could overcome. I could never say, ‘If I try hard enough I’ll be American on paper.’ The dream is definitely there, but you have to be ready for it not to be fair” (“What Unites Us?”). The work she is putting into becoming a citizen is hard. To receive a citizenship, it can take up to 8 years, in some cases. She had many fears including the process and possible rejection. This reminds me of a current event happening in my life. I moved to Texas, a little over a month ago, from Georgia to pursue my radiology career. I have had some struggles with doing this. First, I had to move from my friends and family. In which was very difficult for me to pack up my belongs and leave home 19 hours away. Secondly, I’m having to retake classes right now. Transferring credits didn’t go as planned. This has been difficult, but I can’t worry about it. My hard work will pay off if fear doesn’t control my actions. I can think about the fear and have a second plan. However, I don’t need to let fear take over my actions. There is another side to fear of the future and that’s in our county. This side does not have to do with a personal level situation; this is the side of a national issue problem. In an interview with Pat Thompson he talks about news officials. He says, “If media had a bias that they want to push, it makes it scary to dig into what’s out there. I’d like things to get to the truth” (“What Unites Us?”). His statement is true to the world we live in today. We struggle with media feeding us lies and manipulating the truth. This can put fear into us that is not real. False representation is becoming normal to do on social media and other platforms. This adds more fear looking ahead to our future.

Introduction

The history of the Second World War cannot be studied without analyzing Adolf Hitler’s role as the greatest arch-propagandist the world has ever known. To attract the masses and spread his primary message, this German leader relied on various strategies and initiatives that made it easier for more citizens to be part of his agenda for Europe. Following the end of the First World War, Germany was found culpable of causing great trouble ad compelled to pay reparations for such damages under the London Schedule Payments (1921) and the Treaty of Versailles (1919). For Hitler, such a move sounded erroneous and they believed that there was a need to pursue a new continental order. The establishment of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party led to the adoption of a properly coordinated propaganda campaign that would prepare the country for war.

Literature Review: Hitler’s Use of Propaganda and Fear-Mongering

For centuries, human beings have used propaganda to promote societal, cultural, and religious ideologies. The process gains additional meaning when politicians rely on the strategy to guide and compel the masses to support or be part of a certain course. Between 1930 and 1940, Hitler’s party, also known as the Nazi party, used full-scale propaganda that would later become the best case study for studying war, prejudice, and racism (Nicolaides 2018). With Hitler at the helm of the country’s leadership in the early 1930s, his government adopted a unique form of messaging that spread anti-Semitic messages against the Jews. For instance, one poster identified Jews as lice capable of triggering various diseases, such as typhus (see Fig. 1). The emerging ideology is believed to have helped manipulate most of the citizens and soldiers at the time. The first outstanding goal by Hitler revolved around getting rid of the Jews in the country since he saw them as parasites and capable of disorienting the country’s future.

To achieve meaningful success and support the extermination of the Jews, Hitler’s Nazi party adopted a wide range of technologies that would sensitize and inform more people. Some of the common ones included mass printing, radio, and films (Martin 2020). The strategy would make it easier for Hitler to persuade his followers that the Jews formed the true enemy of the country (Nicolaides 2018). This effort would become the central theme behind launching an assault against members of this race. The involvement of more Nazi leaders in propaganda would result in the development of an unprecedented sense of pride founded on German identity. Consequently, the people would become convinced that the time had come to get rid of all Jews in the country.

While the focus at the time could be to encourage the people to develop anti-Semitic views, Hitler was also aware of his anticipated project for the wider European continent. During the same period, Hitler was rebuilding Germany’s military forces through increased spending and prioritization of key projects. Following the identification of the country as the primary source of problems in the continent, Germany had been forced to encounter numerous limitations in military spending (Martin 2020). Hitler was also aware that the pronounced reparations would have negative implications for the country’s future economy. Through some of his key people, Hitler would set the best environment for using propaganda to drive the masses and encourage them to start supporting his course.

Towards the end of the 1920s, Hitler appointed some individuals who would help support the propaganda effort and ensure that desired outcomes were recorded. For instance, Joseph Goebbels would become the chief propagandist for the Nazi party. Specifically, Hitler had a unique ministry focusing mainly on his propaganda (Fürstenau 2020). The name of such a government unit was the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Goebbels would be instructed to become the head of the department and consider the best ways to convince more people about the dangers Jews posed to the economy (Harwani 2019). These efforts would make it possible for the Nazi party to continue using the weapon to spread the intended messages while creating favorable conditions for launching a new upheaval.

Towards the end of the 1920s, Goebbels’ ministry was informing the people about a German gospel whereby the people were keen to get rid of the Jews. This achievement would eventually provide most citizens with the best resources and develop a sense of nationalism and unity. The individuals would become proud of the country and be ready to fight and defend it by all means. It was also a clear indication that the propaganda tool was making significant gains toward convincing the people to identify themselves with Hitler since he was the best savior for the nation (Goldberg 2017). The effectiveness of Goebbels would make it easier for more people to begin following and idolizing the Nazi party leader.

The power of propaganda made it easier for Goebbels to sensitize the people about the importance of a stronger nation. The followers of the Nazi party were informed of Hitler’s expedited efforts to rebuild Germany and take it back to its glory. Goebbels launched a new campaign whereby people were issued portraits of the leaders to hang in their workplaces and homes (Aslan 2017). In 1938, F. Thiele, a great artist at the time, painted an inspirational portrait of the leader that helped promote Hitler’s agenda and the power of the Nazi party (Martin 2020). Additionally, most of the leaders who gave their speeches were keen to adore and pronounce the abilities of Hitler. These efforts would encourage more young and old people to idolize him and embrace his thoughts.

The use of propaganda was also directed at social and business affairs in the country. For instance, Goebbels wrote and published numerous essays that guided people to adore Hitler and disassociate themselves from the Jews. The ministry went further to use penned articles and films since they could be viewed by the masses (Posternyak, Boeva-Omelechko and Borisovn 2018). Goebbels and his team focused on the best ways to support the production of films that would support the propaganda effort. The people would be easily convinced about Hitler’s plan for the country and the desire to control Europe.

Before and during the start of the Second World War, Hitler was aware that the time had come to expand the use of propaganda and send the intended messages to the people. At the time, Goebbels was keen to promote a new wave that portrayed the Nazi party as the true hero and savior of the nation. The people were meant to acknowledge that the country was facing a constant threat from the Allied powers. According to Aslan (2017), Hitler educated the people to understand that such enemies were acting on behalf of the Jews and could do anything to protect them. The Germans were informed about the presence of villains in the country who supported the primary enemies.

This strategic use of propaganda encouraged more people to become part of the Nazi ideology. The approach also created a scenario whereby the war in Europe was viewed as an upheaval whereby the Nazi party was portrayed as the key defender of the country. The issuance of such misinformation was critical since most of the citizens were aware that the outcomes of the First World War were still haunting the country (Martin, 2020). With the ongoing conflict in Europe, propaganda made it possible for the people to become more involved since they were afraid of a second loss. According to most of the leaders at the time, chances were extremely high that any form of loss could trigger an annihilation of the people’s spiritual, economic, military, and even political identities in Europe (Allen and McAleer 2019). At the same time, the people would support the efforts put in place to get rid of the Jews. Through the power of propaganda, most of the citizens would start identifying them as warmongers who had forced the United States and other countries to declare war against Germany.

In some instances, those involved in promoting propaganda presented messages that appeared to encourage the people to fight and become part of the war. For example, Goldberg (2017) identifies one of the pamphlets issued in the early 1940s to sensitize more citizens about the importance of fighting to avoid any form of Americanization. According to the Nazi party, such a path could result in the subsequent oppression of the people and the eventual destruction of the existing culture. Another propagandist by the name of Heinrich Goitsch was keen to indicate that the possible loss of the ongoing war in Europe could result in the extinction of the nation (Martin 2020). These messages were quite inspirational and continued to encourage more people in the country to be part of the war.

The outlined messages could amount to fear-mongering whereby the people were sensitized about most of the challenges they stood to encounter if Germany lost the ongoing war. The possible loss of culture and the elimination of the country were powerful messages that compelled more people to become part of the ongoing upheaval (O’Shaughnessy 2017). They were convinced that the time had come for them to fight and help prevent the nation from falling into the hands of the enemy. The same case was for the initiatives aimed at proving charity. Those who joined feared that the ongoing war could leave many desperate or incapable of fighting poverty.

To support the people, the Nazi party went further to implement strategies for propaganda that focused on the plight of children and women. For example, the National Socialist People’s Welfare Organization (NSV) was launched to implement the charity efforts of the Nazis (Martin 2020). In one of the famous posters of this propaganda, a woman with her child is depicted getting some form of help from a Nazi soldier (see Fig. 1). The message emerging from the poster was that the party was keen to protect the health of women and children and ensure that the risk of poverty remained as low as possible (Goldberg 2017). With the NSV focusing on the welfare of the people, Nazis were keen to adopt the power of propaganda and encourage more people to join NSV.

This analysis has revealed that German propaganda was carefully crafted in such a way that it promoted the idolization of Hitler while promoting anti-Semitic messages. The people were exposed to deceiving messages through continued suppression of the truth. The information amounted to fear-mongering whereby more citizens were compelled to become part of the ongoing projects and agendas in the whole of Europe (Martin 2020). Before and during the Second World War, it was quite clear that Hitler succeeded in transforming Germany into a country that promoted anti-Semitism. The people were also willing to join the military and fight to undo the reparations and damages arising from the infamous First World War (Yoo 2017). Hitler’s government would pursue unification through the continuous manipulation and use of different tools of mass media. Consequently, such efforts made it possible for the Nazis to continue fighting to the very end.

Conclusion

The completed discussion and evidences reveal that Nazi Germany will always remain the best case for analyzing the effective use of fully pledged propaganda. In this scenario, Hitler ensured that his methods revolved around every citizen. The government of the time relied on all possible tools of mass media to persuade people from all walks of life to be part of the process and consider the existing problems associated with the Allied powers and the Jews. This effective use of fear-mongering and propaganda would encourage more people to support the extermination of the Jews and rally behind Hitler’s overambitious project of Europe.

Bibliography

Allen, David E. and Michael McAleer. 2019. “Fake News and Propaganda: Trump’s Democratic America and Hitler’s National Socialist (Nazi) Germany.” Sustainability 11 (19): 5181-5199.

Aslan, Mahmut M. 2017. “Hitler’s Way of Propaganda.” The Journal of Academic Social Science 5 (52): 34-42.

Fürstenau, Marcel. 2020. “How the Nazis Used Poster Art as Propaganda.” DW.

Goldberg, Robert A. 2017. “The Bystander during the Holocaust.” Utah Law Review 4 (2): 649-659.

Harwani, Smita. 2019. “Propaganda and Marketing: A Review.” Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research 6 (7): 274-280.

Martin, Tracey. 2020. “Propaganda: How Germany Convinced the Masses.” History in the Making 8 (8): 91-112.

Nicolaides, Angelo. 2018. “Anti-Semitic Propaganda and the Christian Church in Hitler’s Germany: A Case of Schrödinger’s Cat.” Advances in Historical Studies 7 (1): 1-14.

O’Shaughnessy, Nicholas. 2017. “How Hitler Conquered Germany.” Slate.

Posternyak, Ksenia P., Natalya Boeva-Omelechko, and Natalya Borisovna. 2018. “The Formation of the Image of Russia in the British Political Mass Media Discourse.” Language and Culture 40 (2): 1-15.

Yoo, Youngho. 2017. “Radio Broadcasting as Nazi Propagandistic Tool.” International Journal of Culture and History 3 (1): 68-71.

The essay Afraid of Ourselves by Diana L. Eck reveals through aspect of religion that being different contributes a lot to the fears that people have towards each other. She illustrates how this manifests in society by the statement, “In all these cases looking different may sometimes trigger uneasiness and even fear– the fear that we do not know who they are or perhaps that we do not know who we are. As Americans, we are literally afraid of ourselves” (Gary, Robert and Bonnie 696).

This fear of people different from what is the “norm” is universal and it manifests in different parts of the world in pretty much the same way. This essay seeks to illustrate how the fear of different people manifests in society. To this end, a recent case of classical discrimination against different-looking people as presented in the sporting world will serve as a guide for the essay.

The issue of gender orientation and sexuality has the tendency of eliciting varied response from different quarters of the public. In some regions especially in developing countries such as Africa, matters of sexuality are not discussed in society. This was revealed to the world recently by the attention surrounding South African Caster Semenya; the 800m gold winner 2009 World Championships in Athletics in the women’s category.

According to Alan Abrahamson of Universal Sports magazine “Semenya and her competitors barely had time to walk off the bright blue track before questions were raised in the mixed zone, the area below the stadium where athletes interact with members of the media. Those questions continued outside the competition arena. Was South Africa trying to pull a fast one by sending a man to compete in women’s events?” (25).

The controversies that later emerged following that win proved that as a people, the entire world is generally afraid of people who are different from them and more so if the differences are more pronounced in the physical aspects. From her boyish looks and character, the other contenders in the race concluded that she was a man and this brought out a huge outcry from different sporting entities.

While her mother country South Africa received her as a heroine and sought to protect her privacy the rest of the world went at her like she was a criminal. Sporting organizations subjected her to gender tests with an aim of proving that she was not qualified to take part in the championships.

It was later revealed that even in her own country she had time and again suffered discrimination especially whenever she took part in any competitive activities against girls her age. In some instances, she was forced to go to the locker rooms with other girls and pulled down her pants just to confirm that she was indeed a girl.

Though the gender tests were inconclusive, it was agreed that she had more testosterone in her body than other women. This is the kind of information that organizers of sporting events want to use to discredit her performance last year. Critics who argue for Semenya’s case have used Shaquile O’Neal as a comparison.

They say that the extra height of O’Neal over the average basketball player has never been an issue to bar him from playing in leagues with ‘normal’ people. These critics can therefore not see the reason as to why Semenya’s extra testosterone over the quantities that average women have should be used as a reason to lock her out of the sport. This leaves her with only two options.

She can join the men’s races; though she will be extremely disadvantaged because her testosterone levels are not quite enough to make her a man. The second option is to abandon the sport that she loves altogether. This option is however inconceivable as she holds the promise of pulling her family out of poverty.

Semenya’s case is not the only sexuality issue that has plagued the world. Homosexuality has always been a forefront issue that has generally elicited heated debates particularly in the media. Coming from Africa again, reports of homophobic attacks have in recent times been highlighted in international media such as the CNN. Cases of homosexuals being stoned to death in Uganda and some Southern Africa countries such as Namibia clearly illustrate how the human race is completely scared of people that are different from them.

In his book Hungochani: the history of a dissident sexuality in south Africa, Marc Epprecht says, “From a gay rights perspective, the absurdity of fears of contagion (or recruitment of heterosexuals to a gay way lifestyle) is even more pronounced given the prevalence of homophobic attitudes in society today” (185).

In these developing countries the prevalence of same sex relationships is very low and whenever one presents it brings confusion in the family affected. In some cases, parents think that this is a phase that would come to pass. In Africa brute force is used to deal with the issue; almost as if this is a condition that can be beaten out of the person.

This had been the case in the developed countries a few years ago with individuals who elicited gay tendencies being ostracized from society. It is only by the individuals on the receiving end coming out and speaking for themselves that countries such as the united states have come to substantially reduce instances of the homophobia.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that it is in the human nature to hold some reservations when dealing with people who are differently from them. In most cases, once individuals get to spend time with these different individuals it becomes easier to appreciate and understand them.

However, and this again is influenced by the nature of human beings, people would rather judge other people from a distance. This essay has shown how sexuality particularly in Africa is an issue that has for a long time served to propagate the fear of different people.

Works Cited

Abrahamson, Alan “Caster Semenya’s present and future”. Universal Sports. 20 August 2009: 17-23. Print.

Epprecht, Marc. Hungochani: The history of a dissident sexuality in southern Africa. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Press, 2004. Print.

Gary, Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. Print.

Introduction

Baltimore seems to have gained a rather bad reputation among the residents of the USA over the past few years. The so-called “drunk business” (SUPERTIMENEWS 8:50), as well as other illegal types of money making, which some parts of Baltimore are nowadays notorious for, clearly needs to be investigated and dealt with once and for all.

The reasons for the city suburbs to have become infested by the lowest of the low, including thieves and drug dealers, however, are yet to be discussed. Despite the fact that the citizens of Baltimore are also partially responsible for the moral decomposition of the city, the society and the prejudices that it produces also seem to have had a hand in turning Baltimore into one of the most crime-ridden places of the American North.

The Trap of Poverty in the Urban Setting

There is no secret that poverty usually causes people to choose the marginal style of life that they would probably, considered inappropriate otherwise (Becker 235). Even though the reasons for choosing the trail of crime are traditionally restricted to the basic need for money, there are still different perspectives on the given phenomenon, which are worth taking a closer look at. By comparing the perspectives provided by different theories, one can possibly define the source of the problems that Maryland in general and Baltimore in particular are facing at present.

Rational actor theory at work

The first theory to consider, the concept of rational actor, also known as the Theory of Rational Choice, presupposes that it is in people’s nature to make the choices that are favorable for them. Basic enough, the given theory allows for nailing down the reasons for the African American residents of Baltimore to choose crime instead of considering legal yet not so financially favorable options.

Structured socialization theory

Another peculiar perspective to consider the problem of the Baltimore African American community from, the Structured Socialization Theory presupposes that a particular situation and a particular environment predispose the actions of the people who are involved into the situation in question in any way.

Either carried away by the moment, or being convinced in the necessity to pursue the values of a particular society, people take the actions that they would not have otherwise (Anderson 1). Indeed, when considering the Baltimore situation, one will have to agree that, without being ostracized by the rest of the population, the people inhabiting the Baltimore African American suburbia would have, probably, not succumbed to illegal activities.

In some way, society molds criminals, creating the premises for criminal activity to occur, with such setting as “unpaved streets, open-air sewers, random garbage collection, polluted drinking water, and poor lighting” (Auyero 26).

Perhaps, the saddest thing about watching the principles of the given theory coming into life is that the criminal environment of Baltimore sucks in not only the adults, but the younger population, including teenagers and kids. Thus, the vicious circle closes; once made sinister by the criminal outcasts, the city coins criminal outcasts nowadays.

Movie Analysis: Through the Lens of Social Justice

Like any other documentary, the given movie has its strengths and problems. While clearly leaving an impression, it still fails to provide the answers to the questions that it asks. More to the point, the movie succumbs to the common mistake by disregarding the significance of the obvious culture clash.

Strengths: in search for a solution

The first and the most obvious strength of the video is the ability of the director to show that the measures are obviously taken to address the issue concerning high rates of crime in the Baltimore suburbs. It is also remarkable that the video manages to stir the audience’s attention, raising people’ awareness of the issue.

It would be wrong to say that the report provided by the narrator reinvents people’s perception of life in Maryland, yet it clearly sheds the light on the issues that had clearly been silenced p until now. Finally, the author’s objectivity should be noted as a major advantage of the movie.

It would have been easy just to blame high crime rates on the inefficiency of the local police force and the marginal lifestyle of the people inhabiting the neighborhood; instead, the author provides a detailed account of the root causes of the current situation, therefore, preventing the viewers from laying the blame solely on the local African American population (Katz 82).

Weaknesses: culture, acceptance and the vicious circle

Perhaps, one of the basic flaws of the given documentary concerns its inability to specify the reasons for the conflict in question to occur.

Sadly enough, even in the XXI century, when racial issues should have been long resolved, major misunderstandings between the African American people and the rest of the U.S. population occur on a regular basis due to the lack of cultural connection (Liebow 34). It seems that the movie director could have explored the issue regarding the culture clash between Americans and African Americans more.

Middle ground as the Promised Land

Even though the concept of middle ground seems to have been worn out long before the given video came out, for the residents of Baltimore, it can be, in fact, their saving grace.

Alternative solutions and their legitimacy

The problem regarding the Baltimore mobsters, however, is not going away that simple; in order for the city to be safe, one will have to take more drastic measures and wait much longer. Even when implemented successfully, changes take time, especially changes in social life.

To change the current status of Baltimore as one of the most dangerous places in Michigan, it will be necessary to change its residents’ perspective, which will require much time (Rosenhan 379).

Conclusion

It would be wrong to assume that the urban poor are the only ones to be blamed for their problems. Apart from the fact that people are forced to live in the criminal environment, one must mention the lack of job opportunities, as well as educational options, for that matter. In other words, even though people make their own choices, it is also the society that offers these choices to the social outcasts.

As it has been stressed, the problems that Baltimore is currently facing are not going away in one day. To make sure that the crime rates have dropped, one will have to give the new strategy a time test. Success, however, can be achieved at the earliest stages of problem solving, i.e.

At the stage of recognizing the issues in perceiving the African American culture, as well as the need to give African Americans in Baltimore more opportunities for engaging in the city’s social life. Without social outcasts, there will be no crime material anymore, which will hopefully help the Baltimore case.

Works Cited

Anderson, Elijah. “The Code of the Streets.” The Atlantic, 2013: 1–15. Web.

Auyero, Javier. “Born Amid Bullets.” Contexts, 12.1 (2013), 25–29.

Becker, Howard S. “Becoming a Marginal User.” The American Journal of Sociology 59.3 (1953), 235–242. Print.

Katz, Jack. „The Ways of the Badass.” Seductions of Crime: Moral and Sensual Attractions of Doing Evil. Ed. Jack Katz. New York, NY: Basic Books. 80–113. Print.

Liebow, Elliott. Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcomer Men(Legacies of Social Thought Series). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 1967. Print.

Rosenhan, David L. “On Being Sane in Insane Places.” Santa Clara Lawyer 13 (1973), 379–399. Print.

SUPERTIMENEWS. “Fault Lines.” YouTube. 2013. Web.

Introduction

The speech, in spite of its serious theme, “the world after college and fear”, was delivered in a rather easy style. Not only the language is easy, but also very funny. Two factors must have contributed to this.

First, the target audience of the speech; the speech was mainly addressed to the college graduates. As young people, college students can fall prey to inattention sometimes. O’Brien manages to spice his speech with enough jokes to not just catch but also arrest every graduate’s attention, as well as the parents and all other persons present.

Second, O’Brien is a comedian, whenever a comedian rises to speak, people expect to laugh. Thus, O’Brien perfectly gives people what they expect. All the jokes and laughter aside, O’ Brien still manages to remain relevant to the occasion and to his main audience.

Discussion

O’Brien addresses a number of relevant issues here. First, that college is not the only answer to success, the sarcastic allusions to Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs are obviously not meant as a laughter to them. Instead, it is a challenge to the college graduates to be innovative and hard working.

In regard to Zuckerberg, for instance, he jokes that it is only at Harvard that one would need to invent an extensive social network just so that one can talk with the person next room. Here, O’Brien is putting emphasis on the creation of big things out of small things; that everything needs to be taken seriously.

Second, everything takes time to get; O’Brien mentions that he once, literally, sat where the students did. Everything, the message says, takes time to happen.

In his comic tone, with regards to unemployment, O’Brien partly blames joblessness on the persistence of old people to stay on jobs. In relation to this, he touches on the role of fine arts and philosophy in the contemporary society. But his joke must not be perceived as a low appreciation of these disciplines on his part.

Instead, he should be understood to be decrying reduced appreciation of these subjects in the contemporary world.

But all these fall under his main theme related to failure and fear; O’Brien advises the graduates not to fear failure. But he is also reminding them of the importance of the fear that whether one fears or not, failure and disappointments are part and parcel of life and cannot be escaped. As such, there’s no point in allowing fear to take over one’s life. Instead, there’s a need to confront that one fears.

The step towards confronting that fear, especially the fear of failure or disappointment, lies in constantly trying things out. He gives an example of just how he took the step to try things out. In the end, he discovered himself. He argues that trying things out, therefore, helps one to learn who he/she truly is.

This self-learning and realization may, at times, involve change in careers, but that change is not a bad thing. It is not the disappointment either, as it may just be what makes one a success in the end; thus, fearing that change is one of the things that one must confront.

Conclusion

O’Brien finalizes his speech with no novel encouragement, calling for hard work and kindness. But that ending summarizes his theme relevantly and accurately. In the end, this was a speech appropriate in context, audience, as well as purpose.

I have experienced many events that promote the culture of fear in America. Different media houses, politicians, and magazines popularize most of these events. The book “The Culture of Fear” presents many examples of the sources of fear in the United States. The experience in the text encouraged me to think differently about these things. I have understood why most of the things popularized by our media might not be dangerous. Different advocacy groups and politicians use the media to spread fear (Glassner 38).

The reading also encourages me to become a critical thinker. People can use the concept of critical thinking to understand when something is true and acceptable. Most of these peddlers of fear continue to make every American insecure. Most of the stories about disasters and crimes in the country are exaggerated.

The peddlers of panic in the country inflate statistics to pursue their causes and goals. I have come across many stories to do with crime, robbery, insecurity, discrimination, and teenage pregnancy. Most of these exaggerations increase fear in our country. The author also encourages people to look at these issues from a critical perspective.

These concepts and ideas say much about the subject of my experience. Every person is aware of the amount of fear experienced in our country. These peddlers have bombarded our society with stories of drugs, disasters, insecurities, and criminal activities. Ratings to do with crime and insecurity are on the rise. Many people are unable to live in peace because of this practice. I support this argument because most of the statistics are either unfounded or wrong.

Many Americans are unhappy because of such fears (Glassner, 89). These advocacy groups and politicians have benefited from such malpractices. This book offers a new idea about most of these stories. Fear is a terrible thing. It makes people insecure and unhappy with their country (Brubaker and Zimmerman, 48).

Fear affects both social and economic development. I have also been a victim of fear. The situation can force the population to make the wrong decisions and eventually affect the position of their country. The book explains why our country faces many challenges, such as crime, discrimination, inequality, and drug abuse. The author goes further to explain how these peddlers of fear inflate these statistics.

Organizational conflict increases fear and insecurity. The United States is associated with discrimination and inequality. Any attempt to popularize or inflate these statistics will affect the views and opinions of every citizen. The people cannot live in harmony or achieve their socio-economic goals when such fears dominate society. Different theories support the challenges associated with many theories. The book highlights the best strategies to deal with these issues.

Every fear increases the rate of social disorganization and conflict. Many people have decided to abandon their goals and objectives. This experience encourages every person to undertake the best strategies to deal with fear. Many societies have failed to address these challenges because the statistics scare them (Block 37).

We are paying a lot because of such social panics. The government is spending much money to deal with these fears. This situation forces the nation to produce unnecessary products and programs. Such fears have affected the lives of many Americans. The book encourages people to think critically before allowing such fears to terrorize them.

Works Cited

Block, Peter. Community: The Structure of Belonging. San Francisco, CA: Barret-Koehler Publishers, 2009. Print.

Brubaker, David, and R. Zimmerman. The Little Book of Healthy Organizations: Tools for Understanding and Transforming Your Organization. Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 2009. Print.

Glassner, Barry. The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things. New York: Basic Books, 1999. Print.