18AR23-27

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AR 23:27 - Fear: Its workings, and its antidote

In this issue:

FEAR - Our response: global panic or personal prayer?

Apologia Report 23:27 (1,393)

August 22, 2018

FEAR

The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between, by Abigail Marsh [1] -- the advertisement includes: "By putting psychopathic children and extreme altruists in an fMRI [Functional magnetic resonance imaging device], acclaimed psychologist Abigail Marsh found that the answer lies in how our brain responds to others' fear. While the brain's amygdala makes most of us hardwired for good, its variations can explain heroic and psychopathic behavior. A path-breaking read, The Fear Factor is essential for anyone seeking to understand the heights and depths of human nature."

Booklist (Sep 1 '17) reports: "Through her studies with anonymous kidney donors and teen psychopaths, Marsh proves that a person's ability to recognize fearful expressions determines his or her proclivity towards altruism or psychopathy. In short, MRI scans of the amygdala show that altruists are highly sensitive to others' fear. Meanwhile, psychopaths literally cannot recognize fearful expressions, probably because they don't experience fear themselves. If this sounds oversimplified (what about cultural factors and childhood traumas?), Marsh's varied examples, tests, and interviews irrefutably illustrate the link between fear, altruism, and the amygdala. In affectionate, personal anecdotes, Marsh often refers to the man who saved her on the expressway as an extreme altruist - by definition, someone who will risk his or her life to help a stranger with no expected reward. Supported by her studies, Marsh argues, optimistically, that most people genuinely feel compassion for each other, and that cruelty is the exception to human nature, not the norm."

How Fear Works: Culture of Fear in the Twenty-First Century, by Frank Furedi [2] -- from the publisher: "In 1997, Frank Furedi <www.frankfuredi.com> published a book called Culture of Fear [3]. It was widely acclaimed as perceptive and prophetic. Now Furedi returns to his original theme, as most of what he predicted has come true. In this new book, Furedi seeks to explain two interrelated themes: why has fear acquired such a morally commanding status in society today, and how has the way we fear today changed from the way that it was experienced in the past? He explores key moments in the history of fear to help situate the workings of this emotion in contemporary society. Furedi argues that one of the main drivers of the culture of fear is unraveling of moral authority. Fear appears to provide a provisional solution to moral uncertainty and is for that reason embraced by a variety of interests, parties, and individuals. Furedi predicts that until society finds a more positive orientation towards uncertainty the politicization of fear will flourish. Fear has become a problem in its own right to the extent that people now use the term 'culture of fear' as an everyday idiom. It has become detached from its material and physical source and experienced as a secular version of a transcendental force. So now fear has become a 'Perspective' accepted throughout society. Furedi claims that this perspective has acquired a dominant status because in contrast to other options it appears to be singularly effective in influencing people's behavior. Society is trained to believe that the threats it faces are incalculable and cannot be controlled or regulated. The acceptance of this outlook has been paralleled by the cultivation of helplessness and passivity - all this has resulted in a redefinition of personhood. As a consequence we are constantly searching for new forms of security, both physical and ontological. What is the role of the media in promoting fear and who actually benefits from this culture of fear? These are some of the issues Furedi tackles and much more."

The table of contents:

1 Changing Stories of Fear

2 Waiting for the Time Bomb to Explode

3 Moral Confusion - the Main Driver of the Culture of Fear

4 The Perspective of Fear - How It Works

5 Creation of the Fearful Subject

6 The Quest for Safety in a Dangerous World

Conclusion: Towards a Less Fearful Future

No reviews appear to have come out, yet. However, Furedi is interviewed about the book here: <www.bit.ly/2OZwSXN>

Given the political climate in America right now, it's not unreasonable to conclude that we indeed have a growing culture of fear. After all, we certainly have an enraged nation. The prospect of impatience being added to the mix does not bode well.

Fear is currently one of the primary emotions increasingly promoted by the mainstream media in response to the political scene over the past two years. Here are two recent examples:

"Thirty years ago, we could have saved the planet" -- so reads the cover of the New York Times Magazine of August 5. The entire issue is given to just one essay on this subject - and printed with white type against a black background on many of its ominous pages. Presumably, it's already too late to save the planet. Authored by Nathaniel Rich, one of the magazine's writers at large, the essay assumes that "the main scientific questions were settled beyond debate."

The consequences of climate change "will reconfigure the political world order" he declares in his epilogue. We are lost because "human beings ... are incapable of sacrificing present convenience to forestall a penalty imposed on future generations. ...

"Like most human questions, the carbon-dioxide question will come down to fear." Forestalling the consequences "will take a revolution. But in order to become a revolutionary, you need first to suffer." <www.nyti.ms/2vXgrUw>

Also dated August 5: "On Climate Change, It's Time to Start Panicking: The crisis over global warming warrants an unparalleled response" by Matthew Rozsa for Salon. <www.bit.ly/2vRwfZc>

"Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18) Where to begin understanding that solution? Try this: Fearless Prayer, by Craig Hazen (director of the MA program in Christian Apologetics at Biola University) [4] -- J.P. Moreland, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, says: "What makes this book stand out from all the other books on prayer is Hazen’s skillful grounding of prayer, [his] brief but powerful defense of a Christian worldview and his destruction of the naturalism that all of us in the West have absorbed from our culture."

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between, by Abigail Marsh (Basic, 2017, hardcover, 320 pages) <www.amzn.to/2Pje46H>

2 - How Fear Works: Culture of Fear in the Twenty-First Century, by Frank Furedi (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2018, hardcover, 320 pages) <www.amzn.to/2wgdWvQ>

3 - Culture of Fear Revisited, by Frank Furedi (Continuum; 2nd ed., 2006, paperback, 236 pages) <www.amzn.to/2MYtX0H>

4 - Fearless Prayer: Why We Don't Ask and Why We Should, by Craig J. Hazen (Harvest House, 2018, hardcover, 176 pages) <www.amzn.to/2wbNaVu>

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