"We have everything to fear, especially fear itself."
Do you get the feeling we are caught in the middle of a gigantic, global social experiment whose goal is to measure the power of panic? To assess how quickly fear can frighten society into stampeding away from its current habitat? To gauge how far that terrified society will thunder to ease its roiling angst? To evaluate who and what we are willing to trample in our blind rush to secure safe sanctuary?
Who heads a Stampede?
It’s obvious we don’t deal well with uncertainty, and when that ambiguity portends death and destruction, we are willing to cede control of our lives to wise leaders with a sure-fire plan to rescue us from impending doom. When the solution is political, however, what we are really doing is insisting everyone else cede control of their lives as well. To ensure the elimination of the catastrophic risk, nothing less will suffice. Everyone must fall in line immediately. Equality demands it.
Think about it for a minute., who among us is most likely to bolt in fear if not the most fearful? The people who lack either courage or the self-confidence to deal with threats or unknowns as they arise? These individuals are the first to succumb to panic and as their agitation builds it captures the attention of others, spreading anxiety like oil on water until the terror triggers a flight response.
The rush to safety begins and everyone eventually follows. Those who aren’t quite as scared will join in, just in case, and the rest are simply caught in the rush. There is safety in the herd, after all.
The problem with a stampede is that only the few at the front, the most terrified, can see where they’re headed. However, they are not heading carefully down a well-planned road toward safety, they are racing blindly at full speed away from perceived danger. First things first, the consequences will be dealt with later.
The Stampede runs blind
Of course, the whole herd thunders in the same direction. Those in the middle or rear can’t see where they’re going, all they see is the back end of the beast in front of them and won’t realize their destination until they reach it.
There is a World Heritage site in Alberta called Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. It is a very interesting site and I do recommend a visit should you get the opportunity. However, take a guess as to what happened to the Buffalo who took the leap? It was a wildly successful hunting strategy for the Blackfoot tribes as it provided them much food, clothing, and other useful items that could be harvested from the kills. From the Buffalo’s perspective though, it wasn’t such a great endeavour.
It should be noted that only those at the head of the stampede need to be guided. The rest will follow in the desired direction.
It’s true, and like the buffalo, when it comes to Climate Change and COVID-19, we are running blind, unconcerned with the consequences that lay ahead. The only thing that matters is to escape the looming terror.
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Panic is the most valuable political capital of today
But we’re not animals, we’re a much more intelligent species with significant advantages, such as education and the imbued knowledge gleaned from mass information consumption. We don’t run blindly away from terror; we seek guidance from wise leaders who can offer protection and security.
All politicians, wise leaders that they are, need to do is design policy to appeal to the most frightened and easily terrorized. The rest of us are left with little choice but to follow as legislative solutions are rushed through in the crisis of manufactured political panic.
Panic itself, then, is the most powerful political commodity in society because it can be manufactured through the control of information. Once the process is complete, panic’s exploitation is not only guaranteed, it will be demanded.
It truly is a brilliant political strategy.
Pick a theme (Climate Change, Covid-19)
Raise the alarm. Raise the alarm. Raise the alarm.
Agitate, generate fear until panic triggers the stampede.
Shame the stragglers into following.
Offer the solution that guides the herd to safety. (exploit the panic)
Claim success when disaster, real or imagined, is averted.
Repeat.
Brilliant and spectacularly successful, yes, but there is always a price to be paid.
Is Freedom Finished?
Climate Change panic is causing us to destroy our ability to produce efficient and affordable energy, endangering the energy grid needed to power civilization, throwing hundreds of thousands out of work, and causing social havoc. For future, if not dubious, environmental gains.
Covid-19 panic is causing society to shut down in front of our eyes. Our entire way of life is being upended, if not suspended. The difference between it and Climate Change is merely the speed with which we are willing to pay a price.
We will face real consequences for avoiding perceived consequences. The Fearona virus may be the most dangerous pathogen ever created because it targets freedoms of all sorts; emotional, spiritual, moral, physical, and economic.
How much freedom will we lab rats trade for security?
We will soon see.
Mark Gray hails from the Kirkland Lake, Ontario area and has spent over 30 years as an Analyst/Developer in Big IT, mostly in Calgary’s Oil-And-Gas Sector. Creator of an non-partisan, analytical methodology that seeks out and identifies Bias and Deceit embedded in weaponized information.
