"David Hume argues that all government rests on public opinion, and many others have endorsed his argument (e.g., Mises [1927] 1985, 41, 45, 50–51, 180; Rothbard [1965] 2000, 61–62), but public opinion, I maintain, is not the bedrock of government. Public opinion itself rests on something deeper and more primordial: fear. Hume recognizes that the opinions that support government receive their for...ce from “other principles,” among which he includes fear, but he considers these other principles to be “the secondary, not the original principles of government” ([1777] 1987, 34). He argues: “No man would have any reason to fear the fury of a tyrant, if he [the tyrant] had no authority over any but from fear” (34, emphasis in original). We may grant Hume’s statement yet still maintain that the government’s authority over the great mass of its subjects rests fundamentally on fear.
"Murray Rothbard considers fear briefly in his analysis of the anatomy of the state, classifying its instillment as “another successful device” by which the rulers secure from their subjects acceptance of or at least acquiescence in their domination—“[t]he present rulers, it was maintained, supply to the citizens an essential service for which they should be most grateful: protection against sporadic criminals and marauders” ([1965] 2000, 65)—but Rothbard does not view fear as the fundamental basis on which the rulers rest their domination, as I do here. Of course, as many scholars have recognized, ideology is critical in the long-term maintenance of governmental power. Yet every ideology that endows government with legitimacy requires and is infused by some kind(s) of fear. Unlike Rothbard, who views the instillment of fear as only one “device” among several by which the government retains its grip on the masses, I maintain that public fear is a necessary (though perhaps not a sufficient) condition for the viability of government as we know it.
"Jack Douglas comes closer to my own view when he observes that myths (a term he uses in roughly the same way that I use the term ideologies) “are predominantly the voice of our emotions, the images of our passionate hopes and fears, or our passionate longings and hatreds”"
A hallmark of our age is the great extent to which people are consumed by fears – of terrorism, of climate change, of environmental pollution, of inability to get medical care, of inability to get decent jobs, of psychopaths who kidnap and kill young women, of psychopaths who kidnap and kill young children, of global epidemics of untreatable diseases, of invading killer bees or other insects, of p...oisons in the drinking water, of flesh-eating infectious diseases, of drugs that make people too happy and drugs that do not make people happy enough, of . . . you name it; the list is almost endless. Yet by objective measures, people are safer now than they have ever been in human history. Although some contemporary fears may have to do with psychological developments beyond my understanding, it is obvious that modern welfare states and their media mouthpieces work ceaselessly to create new fears and to stoke existing ones, in order to create demands for the state’s eager services as a savior for all seasons.
"David Hume argues that all government rests on public opinion, and many others have endorsed his argument (e.g., Mises [1927] 1985, 41, 45, 50–51, 180; Rothbard [1965] 2000, 61–62), but public opinion, I maintain, is not the bedrock of government. Public opinion itself rests on something deeper and more primordial: fear. Hume recognizes that the opinions that support government receive their for...ce from “other principles,” among which he includes fear, but he considers these other principles to be “the secondary, not the original principles of government” ([1777] 1987, 34). He argues: “No man would have any reason to fear the fury of a tyrant, if he [the tyrant] had no authority over any but from fear” (34, emphasis in original). We may grant Hume’s statement yet still maintain that the government’s authority over the great mass of its subjects rests fundamentally on fear.
"Murray Rothbard considers fear briefly in his analysis of the anatomy of the state, classifying its instillment as “another successful device” by which the rulers secure from their subjects acceptance of or at least acquiescence in their domination—“[t]he present rulers, it was maintained, supply to the citizens an essential service for which they should be most grateful: protection against sporadic criminals and marauders” ([1965] 2000, 65)—but Rothbard does not view fear as the fundamental basis on which the rulers rest their domination, as I do here. Of course, as many scholars have recognized, ideology is critical in the long-term maintenance of governmental power. Yet every ideology that endows government with legitimacy requires and is infused by some kind(s) of fear. Unlike Rothbard, who views the instillment of fear as only one “device” among several by which the government retains its grip on the masses, I maintain that public fear is a necessary (though perhaps not a sufficient) condition for the viability of government as we know it.
"Jack Douglas comes closer to my own view when he observes that myths (a term he uses in roughly the same way that I use the term ideologies) “are predominantly the voice of our emotions, the images of our passionate hopes and fears, or our passionate longings and hatreds”"
"Murray Rothbard considers fear briefly in his analysis of the anatomy of the state, classifying its instillment as “another successful device” by which the rulers secure from their subjects acceptance of or at least acquiescence in their domination—“[t]he present rulers, it was maintained, supply to the citizens an essential service for which they should be most grateful: protection against sporadic criminals and marauders” ([1965] 2000, 65)—but Rothbard does not view fear as the fundamental basis on which the rulers rest their domination, as I do here. Of course, as many scholars have recognized, ideology is critical in the long-term maintenance of governmental power. Yet every ideology that endows government with legitimacy requires and is infused by some kind(s) of fear. Unlike Rothbard, who views the instillment of fear as only one “device” among several by which the government retains its grip on the masses, I maintain that public fear is a necessary (though perhaps not a sufficient) condition for the viability of government as we know it.
"Jack Douglas comes closer to my own view when he observes that myths (a term he uses in roughly the same way that I use the term ideologies) “are predominantly the voice of our emotions, the images of our passionate hopes and fears, or our passionate longings and hatreds”"
A hallmark of our age is the great extent to which people are consumed by fears – of terrorism, of climate change, of environmental pollution, of inability to get medical care, of inability to get decent jobs, of psychopaths who kidnap and kill young women, of psychopaths who kidnap and kill young children, of global epidemics of untreatable diseases, of invading killer bees or other insects, of p...oisons in the drinking water, of flesh-eating infectious diseases, of drugs that make people too happy and drugs that do not make people happy enough, of . . . you name it; the list is almost endless. Yet by objective measures, people are safer now than they have ever been in human history. Although some contemporary fears may have to do with psychological developments beyond my understanding, it is obvious that modern welfare states and their media mouthpieces work ceaselessly to create new fears and to stoke existing ones, in order to create demands for the state’s eager services as a savior for all seasons.
A hallmark of our age is the great extent to which people are consumed by fears – of terrorism, of climate change, of environmental pollution, of inability to get medical care, of inability to get decent jobs, of psychopaths who kidnap and kill young women, of psychopaths who kidnap and kill young children, of global epidemics of untreatable diseases, of invading killer bees or other insects, of p...oisons in the drinking water, of flesh-eating infectious diseases, of drugs that make people too happy and drugs that do not make people happy enough, of . . . you name it; the list is almost endless. Yet by objective measures, people are safer now than they have ever been in human history. Although some contemporary fears may have to do with psychological developments beyond my understanding, it is obvious that modern welfare states and their media mouthpieces work ceaselessly to create new fears and to stoke existing ones, in order to create demands for the state’s eager services as a savior for all seasons.
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