... fear of China, fear of refugees, fear of Muslims, fear of international trade, fear of house price collapse, fear of climate, fear of pollution. Even fear of fear itself.
Fear is a more powerful emotion than love and it overwhelms love.
"It is far safer to be feared than loved."
There is hardly a positive word as hate propagators rule the discussion on Ozpolitic.
The Australian government and the opposition both use fear to control their supporters. It's a powerful political tool.
http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1510 Quote:Fear: The Foundation of Every Government’s Power
By Robert Higgs | May 17, 2005
Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513
All animals experience fear—human beings, perhaps, most of all. Any animal incapable of fear would have been hard pressed to survive, regardless of its size, speed, or other attributes. Fear alerts us to dangers that threaten our well-being and sometimes our very lives. Sensing fear, we respond by running away, by hiding, or by preparing to ward off the danger.
To disregard fear is to place ourselves in possibly mortal jeopardy. Even the man who acts heroically on the battlefield, if he is honest, admits that he is scared. To tell people not to be afraid is to give them advice that they cannot take. Our evolved physiological makeup disposes us to fear all sorts of actual and potential threats, even those that exist only in our imagination.
The people who have the effrontery to rule us, who call themselves our government, understand this basic fact of human nature. They exploit it, and they cultivate it. Whether they compose a warfare state or a welfare state, they depend on it to secure popular submission, compliance with official dictates, and, on some occasions, affirmative cooperation with the state’s enterprises and adventures. Without popular fear, no government could endure more than twenty-four hours. David Hume taught that all government rests on public opinion, but that opinion, I maintain, is not the bedrock of government. Public opinion itself rests on something deeper: fear.[1]
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