How to avoid being controlled by your fear

Since the beginning of time mankind has been fighting a battle to gain and maintain freedom of mind and body. Most people today think they are completely free and the decisions they make are of their own free will, without anyone exerting any control over them. Unfortunately, people don’t realize the subtle or not so subtle ways that the media and other organizations exert a controlling influence on their mind by spreading fear. The easiest way to control someone is by making them afraid. The most common way fear is used as a control technique is to make people afraid of something and then offer a solution to their fears. This is done in many different ways to achieve a wide array of objectives.

Politicians use fear as a way to convince the public to go along with a proposed bill, like spreading fear of global warming to sell the public on the idea of Cap and Trade. (A bill that will do very little to limit carbon emissions and will cripple the economy, all so some traders on Wall Street can get rich from buying and selling carbon credits) They also use fear to convince the public of the need to go to war. This was a tactic very much beloved by the Bush Administration, spreading the idea that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (which were never found) and that the U.S. needed to send troops over to stop Saddam from using them.

The media also plays a large role in the spread of fear. How many times have you felt good or safe after you finished watching the news? The news focuses on murder, death, sickness, anything and everything to make you afraid so that a corporation or a politician can come along and offer you a solution. Take for example, the swine flu that was getting massive amounts of media coverage back in January. It got far more media coverage than it seemed to warrant as only 382 people died from the virus WORLDWIDE and only 89,921 even got sick from it. (Those numbers are from the World Health Organization, the same organization pushing for large vaccination efforts) Those numbers certainly don’t seem to indicate that this is an illness worthy of hours upon hours of media coverage and the shutting down of schools and businesses. So why would the media spend so much time focusing on the swine flu when the regular flu was far more common and killed more people last year? The answer to that question can be found in the reports that are starting to come out of the media now as they talk about the millions of swine flu vaccines that are being prepared. Soon they will be telling you that you NEED to be vaccinated or otherwise you could fall victim to the "pandemic." Personally, I’ll take my chances rather than line up for a shot that IS the swine flu along with some other rather nasty additives (like mercury) especially when there has been very little safety testing done on the vaccine.

So what can we as a people do to make sure we aren’t being controlled by fear? First of all, keep in mind that politicians and the media WANT you to be afraid. For the politicians the more afraid you are, the more likely you are to go along with their plans. For the media, the more afraid you are the more likely you are to tune in, and the more likely you are the buy the "solution" that one of their advertisers or corporate owners are trying to sell. So stay aware of your emotions while watching the news or listening to a politician and make sure you aren’t falling for the scare tactics. Second, if they do make you afraid of something, don’t just take their word for it. If you’re reading this right now, you obviously have access to the internet and can do your own research to find out if the threat they are selling you is really as big as they say. And lastly just take a deep breath and let yourself calm down before you make any irrational decisions. Fear is an emotion that makes people do things they otherwise would not do, that is the whole point of using fear as a method for control. Do not allow anyone to make you live in a state of constant fear or you will become a slave to that fear, going along with whatever plan someone comes up with that they tell you will get rid of the fear object. In the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt: "There is nothing to fear but fear itself."