The Fear Factor

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul402.html

While fear itself is not always the product of irrationality, once experienced it tends to lead away from reason, especially if the experience is extreme in duration or intensity. When people are fearful they tend to be willing to irrationally surrender their rights.

Thus, fear is a threat to rational liberty. The psychology of fear is an essential component of those who would have us believe we must increasingly rely on the elite who manage the apparatus of the central government.

A short essay by Ron Paul that highlights the consequences of speaking, legislating, and governing from a perspective of fear. Fear is the hallmark of socialism - the driving emotional force that motivates people to seek protection from benevolant tyrants - those who would promise that nothing bad will ever happen to good people under their watchful care. Stimulated by crisis, both real and perceived, they advocate the restrictions of freedoms for everyone because of the criminal acts of a few. The mindset always boils down to this - prevent anyone from doing anything bad before they get a chance to do so, and forcibly ensure that everyone does good before they fail to do so...