Economic
The Politics of Hope
Throughout history political leaders have used the Politics of Fear to motivate the public into supporting their agendas. If the general public believe that something or someone threatens their lives, livelihoods, or lifestyles they tend to concede power to government and authority figures. This makes it easy for unethically savvy leaders to make just about whatever they wish to have happen – happen.
Sometimes the Politics of Fear are frightfully effective. After WWI the Nazis managed to convince the public that Jews were gong to take everything away from them. The German citizens were told that the Jews were a threat to their livelihoods and lifestyles. The citizens of Germany gave their power away to the Nazis and found themselves living in a harsh police state that committed the largest genocide in history.
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Politics Creating An Unsafe World
President Wilson entered World War I to make the world “Safe for democracy.” The rise of the Fascists and World War II shattered his dream and the hopes of civilization that cataclysmic upheavals could be forever avoided. The long Cold War created a perilous world where major powers jockeyed for control with the threat of weapons that could destroy every living thing on earth. The fear of communism exerting a domino effect on small poverty-stricken countries led to the quagmire of Vietnam and the embarrassment of the Contra affair.
With the demise of the Soviet Union, the world breathed easier, believing that, at last, human efforts could concentrate on growth, space exploration, and scientific advance, rather than pressuring its greatest minds into developing new means of destruction.
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