E110 SCARY STORIES

“Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong.” (George Bush).

 

            The concept of fear is very broad when it comes to society as whole. Most people fear traumatic events or danger, such as falling victim to a natural disaster or being caught in the middle of a bank robbery.  All of these fears, regardless of rationality, all have a common character trait – the power to subjugate the weak. Power and fear have a direct correlation in a variety of ways. If people fear you, then you have power. If you have power, you are either greatly feared or highly respected. Evelyn Pelczar of Elite Daily asserts that the power fear has over the human mind possesses “the power to sway, distort and rupture the conventions of the human psyche.” Fear alone can be used as a dangerous tool to manipulate, humiliate, control, or conquer. Generally, people do not like to lose control of a situation, or let an individual responsible for the situation over power them, because most of the time it could result in oppression, embarrassment, or even death. The best example demonstrating the correlation between fear and power is the terror group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIL. ISIL is one of the most prominent terror organization in the world today. Unfortunately, ISIL is not the only offender. Militant groups have been using these tactics to gain power for hundreds of years; it just so happens that ISIL is the most relevant in the world today. The way they use fear as a source of power is the epitome of the connection between fear and power. Fear is the battery that powers the entire organization of ISIL – used as an attempt to control the minds and actions of civilizations thousands of miles away. They spread their messages of hate through the internet and use death as a scare tactic. These terrorists showed how much power they’ve gained through fear when they attacked France, bombing multiple locations in Paris and killing hundreds of people. Even President Barack Obama has stated that ISIL is using fear, when he announced that the best way to fight ISIL is to not be afraid. “’We do not succumb to fear,’ Obama said during a news conference closing out the final leg of his nine-day, three-nation trip overseas. ‘The most powerful tool we have to fight ISIL is to say that we’re not afraid. To not elevate them and to somehow buy into their fantasy that they’re doing something important.’” (Parkinson and Mallin). President Obama is right. Once ISIL is unable to instill fear, their greatest method for maintaining power is gone.

 

            An individual or government can lead using two methods: fear or respect. Both make the leader powerful. Fear enables a leader the ability to easily control or manipulate other people. That is the main goal of ISIL, to gain power and followers through fear. They try to spread a “you’re with us or you’re against us” message. Some of the most dangerous tyrants in history lead by manipulating their subordinates filling their eyes with terror, as a way to control them. The fear the individuals had in their leader resulted in oppression. Joseph Stalin is one of the most infamous world leaders to have used fear against his own people. He ruled over the Soviet Union during the early 1900s. The time period was known as Stalin’s “reign of terror” because his people were terrified to act in opposition to him. He forced people to respect him – or at least, pretend to – and punished those who did not. For example, someone could be arrested for not applauding Stalin long enough, because it was considered a sign of great disrespect (Owens). Stalin is just one of the many examples of how a leader can turn fear into power. Although the combination of power and fear can be a very effective tool to rule, a ruler may resort to irrational behaviors if they feel threatened by an overly-powerful subordinate. A tyrannical ruler that is in fear of being overpowered may resort to using a fear tactic to keep the subordinate in line. Looking at the way Stalin treated those who did not respect him showed that all though he was extremely powerful, he did fear a revolution. Therefore, he used fear to prevent it. The people of Soviet Russia were so terrified of Stalin that opposing him was unthinkable.

Leadership is just one of the many examples of how fear and power correlate. People also fear the uncontrollable: when something becomes too powerful and people have no way of stopping it. An overlooked source of power is the Internet. With millions of people on social media and limitless means of communication, it is very easy for an idea, rumor, or image to get on internet, and spread like wildfire. ISIL used the Internet as their messenger. They directly targeted entire nations by posting videos of civilians, reporters and journalists being executed. Although it does not even come close to the actions of ISIL, I have a very close friend named Taylor who is also a student at the University of Delaware, who has a firsthand experience of the frightening effects of the internet. I sat down with to ask her a few questions. Her sophomore year in high school, Taylor was victimized on the Internet, or more specifically social media. Someone released an exposing picture of her intoxicated at a party via Twitter, and she received backlash and hateful remarks.

 

             “The Internet is a source of power, the way a lie or picture can be spread and seen by thousands of people within just a few minutes, that gives an individual person too much power, and that scares me.” Taylor said.

 

            I asked her if she feared the internet before, and if she now fears it even more now.

 

            “You always hear from your parents or those presentations in school that the internet can be dangerous, or once something is online it will never go away… You never really think about how powerful the internet is until something like that actually happens to you… I’m not afraid of the internet in general, but I am afraid of what people can do with it.”  

 

            Perhaps a subconscious form of fear is the never-ending fear of death. Death connects it all together, because no matter what, death is an inevitability of life. This is the root that ties together all of ISIL’s tactics. If people didn’t fear death, ISIL wouldn’t be feared, and they would be weak. Most fears and phobias are derived from the underlying fear of death. Obviously there are exceptions, like it is very unlikely that an embarrassing photo on Twitter will result in death, but the point is that people fear the uncontrollable. No one is immortal, so in most instances – natural disasters, robberies, wars, all the rational and realistic fears, death is a very real possibility. Death itself is outside of anyone’s control, which makes it omnipotent. There are two ways people can die: time and an overpowering physical entity, such as a natural disaster or disease. All of which have power over a person, who is often powerless in the face of certain death. Either way, the cause of death usually results from an overpowering entity. When an individual does not have control over something, that enacting force has become more powerful. “…Control is something for which humans strive. Yet the act of dying is utterly outside anyone's control.” (Fritscher). When the topic of death arises, people often seek comfort by looking for ways to suppress their fear and hide from the uncontrollable aspects of life. More often than not, the go-to blanket to hide under is religious belief. Most religions have a belief that there is a better place after death, and there exists some form of god that has power over you. A God-like figure and assurance of life after death can provide comfort when dealing with difficult experiences like death. “In different religions of the world, death is explained in different manners. But no matter what religion you follow it can become the source of physical, mental, emotional, and psychological healing when you are having difficulty in coping with grief associated with death” (religiousmovements.org). Religion is the most popular coping mechanism for dealing with death or masking the fear of death. It serves as a security blanket for those who fear death’s inevitable.

 

            So what do we do? Do we hide from those with power? Not everyone with power should be feared. Although there have been countless cases of tyrannical leaders using fear to oppress their subordinates, there are ways a leader can use a nations fear to his advantage and manipulate it into a sort of nationality and camaraderie. The opposite way to lead by using fear is by gaining respect. A respected leader is one who earns the position of power by offering security, from the things that their subordinates fear.  One of the best examples is the public opinion during World War II. People were still trying to overcome the Great Depression, and the American public was primarily against the thought of entering another global conflict. After the attack at Pearl Harbor, that drastically changed. Once America fell victim to an enemy attack, President Roosevelt was able to rally the nation and persuade people to enlist. He capitalized on the way people feared the imposing war by addressing it head on.  “Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger... a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire” (Roosevelt). By courageously dealing with the threat of the Japanese rather than hiding from it, he gained the support and respect of America.

 

            Has the internet become a dangerous weapon? In some instances yes, but in other cases, the internet is extremely helpful, and in the right hands its power could be used to weaken terror organizations. Ignoring all the obvious ways the Internet can be helpful like research, resources and cat videos, it could be used as a weapon to weaken these terror organizations. The elite hacker group known as Anonymous, often takes the secrets and plans that organizations are hiding, terror groups or not, and exposes them to the public via internet. While the legality of its actions is ambiguous at best, Anonymous is no doubt using the internet as an attempt to better society, to weaken what we fear, and to truly expose the monsters in the closet.

 

            Without fear, power would not exist as we know it. Whether you fear the power that one has or you use fear to gain power, fear and power are coexisting entities. There are too many ways in which fear can be used as a tool to manipulate, oppress, and embarrass other people, and that is what makes fear so powerful. Most horror movies depict an external force that cannot be controlled or stopped, and although zombies and vampires are fictional characters, it is the uncontrollable, the unknowing, and the overpowering that are the real monsters.

 

 

Works Cited

Bush George W. "Address to the Nation on 9-11-01 - The Rhetoric of 9/11." George W. Bush - Address to the Nation on 9-11-01 - The Rhetoric of 9/11. N.p., 11 Sept. 2001. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.

Fristscher, Lisa. “Thanatophobia” About.com Health. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Lynn, Taylor. Interview. 10 Nov. 2015.

Ownes, Tyler. “Stalinist Propaganda” Prezi. 14 November 2013.

Web. 13 November 2015. 

Parkinson, John, and Alexander Mallin. "President Obama: Overcoming Fear 'Most Powerful Tool' to Fight ISIL." ABC News. ABC News Network. 22 Nov. 2015. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.

Pelczar, Evelyn. “The Power Of Fear” Elite Daily. 20 May 2013. Web. 13 November 2015.

Religious Movements. "Religious Rituals as an Aid to Cope with Death”. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Roosevelt, Franklin. “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation” (12-08-41) American Rhetoric. N.p. 8 Dec. 1941. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.