In The Face Of Fear

When faced with a common enemy, humankind has this tendency to unite. Differences are then left in the rearview mirror as a team of unlikely companions face their united struggle. Nonetheless, as glamorous as this assessment is, it exemplifies the grim reality of human nature; one whose main driving component is fear itself. Nowadays, as the security provided by the post-war liberal period degrades, we see right-wing political movements successfully using such anxieties to mobilize voters. shape public policy in their image, making the failure of the left to counteract such support all the more tragic. Which begs the question: “What do progressives lack that conservatives abundantly possess?” 

To this end, it is essential to understand the guiding force of humanity — that is fear — which makes clear how the Right have co-opted it and wielded it as the ultimate political weapon. For instance, as technology and society have progressed, humanity has also seen the increase of numerous anxieties in their daily lives. Despite numerous advances in medicine, there is a significant portion of the population that is not able to access it. Be it due to it being held behind a paywall, too remote and therefore inaccessible or even saturated with patients, healthcare is not able to fulfill its full potential. A lack of funding inhibits the capacity of doctors to do their job well, a lack of hospitals reduces the access to these services and a lack of coverage leaves many chronic and mental health issues unaddressed. Simply, by looking at this aspect of human life, we see how stress-inducing such a whole process is. Add to this anxiety over housing, employment and food. These pile up so easily and whittle away at a person. It would not be an understatement that the majority of the human race is afflicted with high levels of stress in daily life. As minor inconveniences can lead into a spiral of worst-case scenarios that end up feeding our second most powerful emotion: fear. Indeed, humanity suffers from a constant overload of anxiety, of panic, which places them in quite the dilemma. Either they can face the source of their fears, which is the current organization of society and resources, or flee into the relative safety of a nostalgic, sheltered past that seemingly only exists in the figments of the common imaginary. Evidently, the average person is no different from a beast who is surrounded, terrified and alone; whose lack of individual power and strength leads it to rely on fear rather than valour.

Which is why the Right has been able to succeed in electoral cycles all over the world: for one could guess the decision a being in such a state would make — that being to flee. To flee, towards comfort rather than face the unknown. As previously mentioned, the human being does not flee just anywhere, as it seeks a sense of familiarity, either subconsciously or not. 

This is the reason why the right wing often employs the past as this idyllic period which was stolen by an adversary. Conservatism capitalizes on the fond memories created through childhood to lead those fleeing the oppression of our modern world. It appears that retrospection often reconstructs the past to bring us comfort, budget road trips become glamorous adventures and absent parents become self-sacrificial martyrs. Sadly, the absence of respite, the absence of a period in time where people are not endlessly barraged by their anxieties, our brains then accommodate our memories to create these fantasies as the destination that we run towards when we feel afraid. It has been proven that familiar sights release dopamine, therefore reducing anxiety. This mechanism, which provides us a sense of comfort, is what leads many to turn right. By evocating the images of a time where one salary sustained a family of five, where mortgages were accessible and all the stressful components of our society are absent; the Right promises their base a destination to which they can escape to. Something they belong to and would be prompted to defend. Indeed, the Right creates the valour required to tackle the problems faced by the most vulnerable communities. Such nostalgia is commodified by the political machine of the Right to create a sense of solidarity among the dissatisfied masses. However, as its name implies, conservatism wants to maintain the current order of affairs or even revert it to a state more beneficial to the engineers of such a fantasy. Whether it is media magnates, venture capitalists or fundamentalist preachers; they create a contrarian identity on the sole basis to oppose progress to which they attribute the causation behind the stressors found in our modern environment. This has created a monolith whose top-down structure can mobilize voters, manufacturing consent for the perpetuity of current social conditions. Particularly, the contrarian nature of this movement allows them to create a chimeric

base which encompasses individuals that often oppose each other's existence, such as Christian fundamentalists and non-queer homosexuals. 

This then exposes the feeble foundation of such movements, and if not for the out group that is, who is attributed every single undesirable quality to which they hold responsible for the degeneration of society and political institutions. Yet, as these smaller communities within such a movement are often at odds with each other, without the threat of an adversary, they progressively purge their own movement until only the visible majority is left. In the end, the feeling of security this cause is empty and temporary until they check every person that does not strictly adhere to their soothing aesthetics. 

However, in the end, what is the use of this information to leftists and progressive organizers? As previously mentioned, the Right currently has a monopoly on comfort. An almost tangible end destination which tugs on the heartstrings of the tired and poor, which they can use to mobilize them into proverbial combat. The left needs to build again that rapport with the working class — remind them of what the labour movement and social justice initiatives have achieved for people. To leverage the material conditions which enabled the orange sweep of 2011 and the promise of a better tomorrow. Currently, progressive movements disavow the past as a source of exploitation and corruption whose legacy has culminated in the inequality between classes. To this end, just like the conservatives sho often cherry-pick elements of the past to construct their narrative, the left ought to use its highlights to provide a familiar sense of safety to the base. Since, the left currently stands as a loose confederation of fighters whose disagreements on both details and core values has prevented them from mobilizing support comparable to the Right in recent years. Progressives need to rather focus on the end goal rather than the method, one which is able to cure the afflictions of vulnerable communities. One which, rather than rely upon fear to fuel its fire, employs a more powerful emotion that provides security to each human being: “Love”.

For only love would enable even the most cowardly human being to face the unknown. For only love would fill any person with true and lasting valour, true solidarity which would create permanent bonds between individuals. As a whole, only love can overcome fear and create a coherent, familiar voice that advocates for the wellbeing of the human race. Only such a voice would mobilize a force ready to face the inequities of our times and build a true shelter from the harsh reality we inhabit.