Categorized | Politics
Party of Fear?
by luvobama
Posted on 27 March 2009 | 11:27 am 
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Why does the Republican Party want to rule by fear? Why would they want the people to be scared of other people, other religions,science, other countries, our sexuality and our reproductive choices? I listen to these Republican politicians and talking heads with dismay. They live in a world, I am not familiar with. How can they expect anyone to want to live and think that way? As a woman and a mother of four, they speak a foreign language I will never accept or understand. I want my children to live in a world that is celebrated for it’s diversity and commonality. I want them to be open and giving. I want them to live their short, precious lives in a manner that has meaning. Fear and loathing have no place in a life worth living.
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Great post.
Like KQuark said, fear is a response of the hind brain, called the hypothalamus. When there is no consciousness of the impulses, the lower brain makes an automaton of an otherwise thinking human being. It is a seductive force because it appeals to and likewise feeds the lower ego–the selfish self.
The motivator of the lower ego is survival, at all costs. The behavior, attitudes and opinions we see and hear from Republicans are representative of what happens when the mind becomes disassociated and disconnected from the heart; when the mind believes that it is god.
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i would add the word “ignorance” to the title…….
“fear” and “ignorance” are the two pre-requsites for being a republican…..
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March 27th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
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Really? Fear alone can and has worked – even on those that are not ignorant.
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March 27th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
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but it is by exploiting people’s ignorance that you can instill and perpetuate fear……
if people choose to be willfully ignorant they’ll never conquer their fears…..
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Look through history fear is our biggest motivation. In fact it’s in our DNA because of the way all species evolve. All human senses are evolved to get us out of danger.
We still have remnants of our primordial brains. We have the reptilian portion of our brain that elicits our flight or fight responses which gives us our most basic feelings of fear. We have our lower mammalian brain that governs feelings like hate, lust, infatuation and our mother or fatherly instincts. We have our upper mammalian brain that separates us from most other species that gives us our ability to think creatively, love, form societies and permanent relationships.
The problem with our species is that we don’t properly separate out primordial urges with our sentience abilities.
I have said that our species greatest strength is our unique ability to reason while our graves weakness is our propensity to rationalize.
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March 27th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
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I for the most part, enjoy all of my human emotions. There are a few I do not want to feel. Fear being the first, with hating being a very close second. Both make me feel physically and emotionally wiped out. Like a disease. I will do anyhting to not experience either one of them. My favorite emotions are glee, gratitude and love. If I keep those emotions front and center, there really isn’t a lot of room for anything else. Is that what you call reason? Is that why I am a bleeding heart liberal, just left of the Sandinistas?
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March 27th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
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I agree with you. We would not be who we are without emotions. We would all be heartless psychopaths and society would never progress for the benefit of the good. Emotions are necessary to strive for improvement in our lives, but when it comes down to picking the best way to succeed or decide who we are going to vote for emotions like fear get in the way. I guess I should have been more explicit and said we should not let negative emotions rule our thought processes.
Lincoln said it the best we have to appeal to the better angels within ourselves.
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March 27th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
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I also think our higher level emotions like love, sense of social justice, quest for harmony and peace and all the other altruistic emotions are important guides to our thought process. I just think our more basic emotions like fear, lust, envy etc.. should not rule our decision making.
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Conservatives believe in authoritarian government, which always rules by instilling fear—fear of the “other,” fear of the government, fear of whatever will keep them in power.
It’s not a healthy outlook, but it seems to be hard-wired rather than learned, for the most part.
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March 27th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
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George Lakoff has a book about how to frame the conversation between conservatives and progressive. He does bring the Daddy outlook conservatives have about government
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March 27th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
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Again, i don’t get how people can be so dumb. Especially women.
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March 27th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
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it seems to be hard-wired rather than learned, for the most part.
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Bingo!
Good answer.
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I believe it’s part of “Fun Duh Mentalism” — the extreme version of ANYTHING with absolutely zero acknowledgment of the existence of any differing opinion
Facts are Not their Friend.
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Without fear, we would all realize how much we have in common, and we’d stop arguing with each other and really change this country! We made a small step last November. We just need to keep up the momentum.
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As Groucho mentioned below, fear is a useful tool for control, as is confusion (their other weapon). I’m reminded of a story about Saddam Hussien (most certainly allegorical). He was lecturing a subordinate on controlling the people and as an illustration, emptied a bag of rats in the office. He told the subordinate to round up the rats and put them back in the bag and and of course it was a difficult, somewhat painful and time consuming task. Once the rats were all back in the bag, he swung it around his head several times then emptied them back out on the floor again, telling the subordinate once more to round them up. Since the rats were thoroughly dizzy, disoriented and terrified by the spinning experience, they were rounded up in double quick time. “And that,” said Saddam, “Is how you control the population.”
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March 27th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
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See:
9/11 – Patriot Act, Iraqi War, and on and on
Katrina – Public Schools taken over, Blackwater in the streets
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March 27th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
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Bingo Google the Patriot Act from 2001 and the Enabling Act from 1933 Germany. There are undeniable parallels.
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March 27th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
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Bingo.
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March 27th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
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Scary.
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March 27th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
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Wow… and the scary thing is that he is right about that being one way to control your citizens….
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March 27th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
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My question is, how do people fall for that? How do people not know that they are being duped?
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March 27th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
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Why bother thinking when you can just believe?
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March 27th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
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you’d be shocked how easy it is … far easier than thinking and swimming against the stream
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For anybody who has yet to read The Shock Doctrine, it’s well past time and it covers this.
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March 27th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
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One of the most important modern works
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The Republican party has become the party of greed, guns and sex. It seems to be the only things they think about. Who is having sex with who? How much are my taxes? Keep your hands off my guns!
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Simple. It’s easy to control people who are afraid. That’s all there is to it, and that’s the Republican blueprint. It’s a basic instinct to be afraid of the “other” that you don’t understand. And it’s a lot easier to kneejerk against the “other” than it is to take time to understand it. Republicans make their hay on that.
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