Propaganda: Fear Mining

Fear mining is the process of digging up the fear in a society, refining it, and converting it into something valuable.

One good way to dig up the fear is to start a radio station and get people to call in to express their fears where everyone can hear them. This helps to identify the best fears, and to concentrate them, because they are of little commercial value if they are too dilute.

Any society can come under stress, and during those times, people become afraid. Times of war, times of famine, times of plague. There are of course many more situations, and just picking from some of our recent events, 9/11, Asian tsunami, New Orleans flooding, the Israelis/Palestinian relations, or Rwandan holocaust.

During times of stress, there is a buildup of fear within the society. And this fear, to some people, is the mother lode. If that fear could be tapped, it would result in riches beyond our wildest dreams. And it can be tapped. That's why I call this blog the "Fear Miners".

Once a rich enough vein of fear has been tapped , (through radio, as one example), it is time to concentrate and convert it into hate. You do this by identifying a cause for the fear, and by finding some group to be blamed. Of course it is best to pick on a group with power, resources or wealth. With enough hate stirred up against them the fear miners stand to inherit this wealth or power in the ensuing struggle.

But even if the group to be blamed has nothing, you still stand to make some money if you are clever. An example would be Americans who fear losing their jobs, can then blame illegal immigrants. The illegal immigrants have nothing, so you then simply blame those liberals who allowed the illegal immigrants to get into the country.

Although it is generally best to tap existing fear levels in a stressed out society, sometimes the fear can be planted where you would think none exists. An example of this is fear of wind turbines. If you are an oil company, you might see these wind turbines as a threat. Then you might want to start "seeding" the fear, spreading stories about people getting sick, birds getting killed, lovely vistas desecrated, your tax dollars being misspent, and property values plummeting.

And what about the opposite? What I mean is the environmentalists who are tapping the fear in society. You could call this mining fear out of "thin air". For example spreading stories of global warming/cooling, the threat of chemical pollutants in the air and water. Then this fear is concentrated and redirected at people driving SUV's and oil companies making obscene profits, and chemical companies dumping mercury and PCB's into the rivers.

Even when most of the fear has been processed already, an enterprising prospector can mine fear out of alternate and supernatural realities that are invisible and undetectable. For example: Spread the word that unless you belong to our religion, you are going to burn in hell forever. Once you establish that connection, you can explain that the cure is to join your religion, then ask for donations to support the cause of explaining the problem to other people who do not yet "get it".

Picture: The Baggertransport 2001 Because I'm sure you want to see a few more pictures of it.