Fear Spectrum & Propaganda State: New Glossary Entries

Fear Spectrum: From fear of fiscal insecurity to fear of physical insecurity, I coined the term Fear Spectrum to describe the continuum of fear that gives the state its power. The rank and file on the left is marked by those who are dominated by fiscal fear–the fear of being unable to support oneself at some point–and those on the right are marked by physical fear–the fear of being unable to defend oneself, one’s family or one’s property from attack.

I got this idea from a discussion I had with a caller concerning Bismarck on my July 9, 2016 show as well as the fears of the overlords as laid out in The Report from Iron Mountain: On the Possibility and Desirability of Peace.

The Propaganda State: The surveillance state is the government’s way of keeping tabs on us–of collecting the information. Their motto is “knowledge is power.” But the flip side of that is to control the information we get in return–don’t want any of the knowledge-power in the hands of the people! That’s why, for example, they will fight for cop cameras but never ever institute the informational safeguard of having each camera assigned a dedicated url for 24-7 live-streaming. They not only need to make sure we don’t have access to good information–which is what Internet censorship is for–they want to make sure we have both bad information and, even more important, directed thinking–that’s what mass media is for. The Propaganda State not only aims to make sure we have distorted facts, it wants to make sure we have the desired emotional responses it needs to support its actions and policies.