Fear Drives The Political Ads, But... Part Two

While humans are by nature pretty much apprehensive about change, much of the political right "fears" change, some pathologically so. The ultra modern American right seems to not only want to stop change, or slow it down, but to reverse course to some unknown destination in the past. The past is a safe place, because even if there were bad times, we know the outcome. With the future, things are truly never certain. The constant barrage about "hate the government," "never trust government," "government IS the problem, not the solution," "fear the government" has played with the minds of many, and not to their own self interest, but to the advantage of corporations and other wealthy interests, who help fund ad campaigns of misinformation, disinformation and outright lies designed to scare people with irrational fears of government. I'm not naive, the political left uses fear too, but elderly and poor people are rightly fearful the conservatives, especially the ultra conservatives, will take away or curtail their security benefits. Like a gambler who can't stop trying to beat the odds, and like the bankers and others who gambled on the housing market, there are those who want to gamble Social Security money in the stock market. They will never do it if they aren't making the rules, and their number one rule will be "Heads they win, tails you lose."

Remember, capitalism is NOT about providing for everyone, or getting you medical care, or sending your kids or grandchildren to school. It is about one thing, making money. Pure capitalists see fairness as "I beat you, I get the rewards." You don't have to be a communist to see that communism, in the big picture, provided a counterbalance to capitalism for decades. Capitalists were often held in check, to some degree, by the fear that average people would turn to communism as a refuge from ruthless capitalists. The thing was, communism was fatally flawed by providing no incentives for people to strive for achievement; that is, more money, and by using total force to dominate. Like it, not like it, most people want more; we all want a better life and we all have selfishness in us. The problem comes when one group dominates and can then make the rules to benefit themselves. This little joking statement has much truth to it: "I want everyone to be treated fairly, but I just want to be treated more fairly than you." Capitalists now see themselves as the victors. To the victors go the spoils, and these ruthless people are raking in the spoils, at YOUR expense. It isn't by magic that income inequality has grown so much.

All the while the income gap has increased, the "un-rich" have remained divided over all sorts of issues, I'm certain to the absolute glee of the ruthless and greedy. When we are divided, they win, because we aren't paying enough attention to their actions. Changes in America and the world have given many people an "angst" (see "Word History" below), and the ultra conservatives plan to keep that "angst" in place. Fear of minorities, fear of unions, fear of people of different faiths, fear of people with odd sounding names, fear, fear, and more fear. The fear that should be most prevalent should be the fear of what the wealthy and the interests will continue to do to us.   

WORD HISTORY:
Angst-This word, meaning "irrational or unexplained unease, sense of fear," goes back to Indo European "(h)engh," which had the notion of "tight, narrow, constricted." This produced the variant, "angh," with the same basic meaning, but also meaning "constricted to the point of pain, distress," which then gave its Old Germanic offspring "anguz," with the same basic meaning. The West Germanic branch of Germanic had "angust," which gave Old English "angnes" and "angsumnes," both with the meaning "pain or distress of the body or mind." These words eventually died out in English, however, the same West Germanic word gave Old High German "angust, which then became "angest" and then the modern form "Angst." During the 1800s, the word came to be used among the medical community in regard to psychology, even somewhat in English, especially a bit later under the influence of Sigmund Freud's ideas on the human mind. There seems to be no "official" date the word was borrowed into English, but during the 1930s and early 1940s the word had spread more into general usage.