By Rupert Pye
Wisdom from Hermann Goering adopted by Leftists
Hermann Goering was one of the highest-ranking Nazis in the Second World War. Following the end of the war in 1945 he was captured and stood accused at the famous Nuremberg trials by the Allies. He was sentenced to death by hanging. But Goering on 15 October 1946, dodged the hanging by committing suicide with smuggled cyanide capsules just hours before his scheduled execution.
When Goering was in jail he was interviewed. Attributed to Goering was the line “The only thing that needs to be done to enslave people is to scare them. If you manage to find a way to scare people, you can make them do what you want. You can do it in a Nazi, socialist, communist regime, in a monarchy and even in a democracy.”
That was in 1946, but long before that perceptive observers recognised, that fear is a trump card for politicians to play in the political game.
Mencken and FDR hits the spot
American H.L. Mencken, known as the “Sage of Baltimore” is regarded by many as one of the most influential American journalists, essayists, and writers of the early 20th century. He wrote “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
Between Mencken’s days and World War Two, US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 in his first inaugural address entitled “Fear Itself”, said, “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoned, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
A good society well governed by a government serving the voting public will seek to have people contented and secure. Nobody wants to live in a society of fear.
But Mencken saw fear, or in his words “alarm”, as part of political strategy that politicians like using use. He recognised that — simply put — fear works.
Of course it does according to the psychologists. “Discussing risks or instilling anxiety is effective at changing intentions and behaviour, particularly when the behaviour provides a solution to the threat,” says Dolores Albarracin, PhD, professor of psychology, business, and medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Humans are equipped with approach and avoidance emotions and we need both to lead successful lives.” For example, “having a fear of injury from an auto accident can lead more people to wear seat-belts,” she added.
Fear can be used in a number of ways by politicians. For example, as Mencken recognised fear can be used to attract votes and as he put it, by making “the populace alarmed and hence clamorous to be led to safety.”
Muldoon’s Fear Card
Fear can be used by a political party to lure voters away from another party or government. Election campaigns also use fear to drive votes away from political opponents. This strategy may involve factual or misleading statements about the opposing party which may be in government.
A prime example was the National Party’s 1975 ‘”Dancing Cossacks” television advertisement. National was trying to turn voters against the Labour government by portraying that the government’s recently introduced compulsory superannuation scheme was a Soviet-style communism measure.
It succeeded [or at least helped in —Eds] sweeping Rob Muldoon’s National Party into power in a landslide victory.
Psychologists have found that often messages with fear are nearly twice as effective as messages without fear.
“Fear induces withdrawal, stepping back, being cautious,” says Christopher Federico, PhD, professor of political science and psychology at the University of Minnesota. Federico. And that can mean withdrawing to the point of not voting.
If you’re experiencing fear while listening to a politician, “It is important to understand that many statements made by politicians and candidates are made for strategic reasons that extend beyond changing your vote to demobilizing the electorate,” says Leonie Huddy, PhD, professor of political science at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
“Fear, like hope, can be very motivating and is not inherently bad. The challenge is to identify when fear is being used deceptively. For example, intentional distortion of evidence is within the realm of disinformation and often foments fear for political purposes,” says psychologist Dolores Albarracin.
Conspiracy?
But how can a voter perceive that a political candidate is inducing fear in illegitimate ways like lying or disinformation?
“The use of disinformation to promote fear is quite striking when we look at how in recent years some political leaders have been increasingly spreading conspiracy theories,” says Karen Douglas, PhD, professor of social psychology at the University of Kent.
But how does a voter determine whether a conspiracy theory is a lie or an exaggeration made for political gain? “ Conspiracy theories cannot be dismissed because they earn the tag of “conspiracy theory”. Of course people do conspire. History is littered with conspiracies. For example Julius Caesar. As one friend with a grin said to me, “Why what about the Last Supper and the conspiracy against Jesus?”
Go tell Adolf Hitler and his rise to power in Germany, then Europe and plan to conquer the world and he would say “Was ah lachen!” i.e. “What a laugh!” Tell the Japanese in World War Two after they conspired during peace talks with the USA to make an attack on Pearl Harbour. Or tell US president Richard Nixon and his Watergate conspiracy that was exposed.
In fact, a meta-analysis conducted by Dolores Albarracin and colleagues showed that the impact of misinformation is extreme (Psychological Science, Vol. 28, No. 11, 2017). “Based on the effect sizes we estimated, misinformation heard for the first time will be persuasive 99.6% of the time,” she says.
Who is currently peddling “misinformation” about covid-19 in New Zealand? The Jacinda Government or critics of it?
In the current pandemic of coronavirus four political scientists in the Swiss Political Science Review (25 May 2021) said a crisis “like the current coronavirus pandemic evoke negative emotions in the general public.”
Little research has been done on the influence of these mental states on trust in the government. But the quartet said “that fear and anger as the two crucial negative emotions in times of crises have divergent effects on trust in the government.” One is a ‘rally-round-the-flag’ effect increasing trust in the government, the other is blaming the government for the adverse circumstances.”
The latter in other words stands accused of “playing a political game.”
Handling the pandemic has created anxiety
Two retired doctors I have spoken to — independently — said the government’s handling of the pandemic relative to lockdowns, mask wearing and vaccinations had been confusing and unsettling and unjustified. Both went further to say the lockdowns and other measures seemed designed to keep people alarmed and anxious.
As H.L. Mencken described it, will the people see the Ardern-led government as “leading the people to safety?” Or will people see government handling of the covid-19 as an “imaginary hobgoblin.”
The questions and the answers could well determine the result of election 2023.
Brerpossum said:
After a recent trip away and joining a tourist activity in Rotorua, the talk was about how they are expecting truckloads of tourists back to NZ, as the rest of the world saw how well the Adern govt succeeded with the covid thing, open for business while the rest of the world was locked down. Hard to believe the thinking but I think the majority of people are totally sucked into this way of thinking! She saved us from covid they screech! Especially when you see the amount of fearful people still wearing masks everywhere!
hawidaho said:
The propaganda machine knows no boundaries…..it has thoroughly brainwashed the same sheeple that took the ‘covid lie’…..into believing that NZ is still “clean, green and pristine”…..and Jacinda is just so cool…..These fools let the media do their thinking, so that they don’t have to.
Bud jones JonesQSM said:
Just lookaround at thefear induced maskedteam of 5 mil,virtue signalling obedience to the Ardern cabal”only source of truth”.
What about the fear induced from a Matatini Festival ,fist shaking pounding sticks, war paint face & waging tonguesf ear—“we will come for you one day, watch out guilty ones”Mencken is ground zero in NZ.Even the landslide 2020 win by Ardern was tagged “the pandemic election”–might as well been “the FEAR ELECTION
Dr. Charles Baycroft said:
Most of the things people fear an worry about do not happen to them.
A peer reviewed, published study found that 91% of the things people feared and worried about did not happen to them.
Still, fear and greed are very powerful primitive instincts that served our ancient stone age ancestors well.
Fear motivated them to avoid predators and enemies that would definitely harm or kill them.
Primitive Greed motivated them to identify and seek food and other things that were essential for living and store some away in times of plenty.
Modern people are increasingly fearful of things that “could possibly” or “might” happen rather than those that are realistically and statistically probable.
There are two groups of people that utilize the creation and promotion of fear to further their own ambitions.
The Politically ambitious (Omnipotent Moral Busybodies) who seek increasing authority and power over the rest of us in order to force them to do what they think is “for our own good”.
The commercially ambitious business people who use psychological manipulation to motivate us to buy all the stuff that they sell to become richer.
Incidentally, these 2 groups cooperate with one another very effectively to influence what the politicians and bureaucrats in our government decide to do to the rest of us.
Since Sigmund Freud began to understand how our subconscious minds and primitive emotions effect out thinking and behavior, PR, propaganda and marketing consultants haver been using the science of psychology to “hack our brains” for the benefit of their political and commercial clients.
The people in the media also understand that alarming readers and viewers gets their attention and “good news does not sell”
When we are told to fear this or that we really ought to be suspicious and look for some in dependent dats and evidence to calculate the odds.
HOW LIKELY IS IT THAT THIS WILL HAPPEN TO ME?
If it’s not highly probably we then it is just another of that 91% of things we don’t need to worry about or fear.
A coward dies a thousand times the valiant die but once.
Billy Ghillie said:
Tony.
That is a very good thoughtful and provocative article. Bloody worrying.
Billy Ghillie.
L.Hore said:
Unfortunately many people buy into this bull shit.
L.Hore said:
The bull shit I was referring to was was that of all these so called leaders not the author of this post.
Richard Hannay said:
The current call for compulsory mask wearing, promoted by government ‘lackie’ “Professor” Michael Baker on tv, exhibits fear mongering. Provoking fear is a favourite used ploy of politicians. The H.L Mencken quote sums it up.
Bud jones JonesQSM said:
Just look around at the fear induced masked team of 5 mil,virtue signaling obedience to the Ardern cabal”only source of truth”.
What about the fear induced from a Matatini Festival ,fist shaking pounding sticks, war paint face & wagging tongues f ear—“we will come for you one day, watch out guilty ones ”Mencken is ground zero in NZ. Even the landslide 2020 win by Ardern was tagged “the pandemic election”–might as well been “the FEAR ELECTION
William Graf said:
People are insecure and in a state of fear, which I suspect is deliberately generated as a political tactic by this dictatorial government. Sorry about the comparison, but Hitler I understand, did this prior to the Second World War.