Grappling With the Politics of Fear

There's an ongoing debate among media experts, peace advocates and funders about what media messages and symbols could galvanize popular opinion against the seemingly imminent Bush Administration invasion of Iraq.

A number of ads from peace advocates have recently appeared in the New York Times and in other newspapers, with more in the pipeline. Each of the ads makes a somewhat different argument for why Americans should be resisting the will of the Bush administration to take over Iraq and try Saddam for war crimes.

Yet, it is increasingly apparent that the climate of fear promoted by the Bush Administration in the wake of a series of national traumas is having wide effect. It seems clear that the politics of fear and safety has been underestimated by progressives and pundits. This political message likely had more impact on the Democratic losses and Republican gains in the recent elections than the widespread sense that the Democrats had no message.

According to George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley University cognitive scientist and author of "Moral Politics," the anxiety-provoking anti-terrorism actions and messages of fear of the Bush administration fall into the category of the "strict father" mode of communication.

Lakoff concludes that the country is dramatically split between two ways of understanding the world. Some see this division as political – conservative vs. liberal. But Lakoff argues that it is ultimately a moral division, one derived from how people envision the right kind of family. Hence it is also a personal division.

Lakoff believes that the "strict father" mode is at the bedrock of conservative ideology. This morality "assigns highest priority to such things as moral strength ... respect for and obedience to authority [and] the setting and following of strict guidelines of behavioral norms." Nurturant parent morality, by contrast, "requires empathy for others and the helping of those who need help. To help others, one must take care of oneself and nurture social ties." This morality provides the basis for progressive/liberal ideology.

Clearly, in this post-Clinton period, where a fundamental assumption is that the world is a dangerous place, and people must be protected, the strict-father worldview is in ascendance. And the conservatives know it, and they know how to use it.

As Lakoff underscores, "Over the past thirty years conservatives have poured billions of dollars into their think tanks. They have articulated the system of moral and family values that unifies conservatives; they have created appropriate language for their vision; they have disseminated it throughout the media; and they have developed a coherent political program to fit their values." Lakoff argues that this infrastructure of ideas and values is the essential reason "for the success that conservatives have been enjoying, despite the fact that they appear to be the minority."

Messages In a Bottle

The successful appeal of strict-father morality in the face of national trauma has fundamental implications for thinking about what messages will appeal to a broad cross-section of Americans.

It is a wake-up call when one grasps the significance of the conservative success in controlling the central narratives in U.S. politics since Bush was elected in 2000. If fear is uppermost in people's minds, progressive advertisements with very specific anti-war messages about foreign oil dependence or about war's effect on the economy or social spending may fall on deaf ears.

Herb Chao Gunther, head of the Public Media Center in San Francisco, thinks people have been "slapped silly by the dizzying effects of larger-than-life issues, especially 9/11."

As he puts it, "They don't feel confident in making complex decisions. They have a tendency to look for the 'tough cop on the beat' to take care of them ... It is difficult getting mindshare when fear, panic and withdrawal are on people's minds."