Fear is not a new thing. It has been ingrained into our biology from our beginnings. Ancient man depended on fear in its base form of 'flight or fight' to stay alive. Our history is one of surviving great odds just to be in the here and now. The journey mankind has taken just to arrive at this point - the apparent product of evolution and 'master' of all we survey - just as well might not have happened at all. Life was created by a combination of many factors working together to create the building blocks of our very origins. We are a lottery of experiments and mutations that have made it this far. Amazing as all that is, I'm not convinced of the worthiness of the experiment given humanity's history of violence, genocide and control of others by as many means as possible to retain as many sources of finite power as possible.
I'm no stranger to fear. My history of homelessness, poverty and domestic violence has certainly left its mark. I'm sensitive to fear and react accordingly but at least I understand the dynamics of it and how it works and am in a position now to do something about my own situation on a personal level.
Not so fortunate are those who experience violence in our communities on a regular basis. Domestic violence, and indeed, violence of any nature is and always has been prevalent in society. I'm not sure if it's escalating, given mankind's violent history - but I'm sure it is more in our faces in the age of our evolving light-speed communication systems that we have access to.
This isn't a story about that, although the natural state of fear ingrained at an unconscious level in all of us suggests that the likelihood of somebody not suffering from some kind of fear - fearful thoughts, fearful reactions, fearful situations and experiences in life is low. Most people have experienced fear at some level. While I'm not a psychologist, I'm not stupid. I see this going on around me, people's reactions and I see how our governments respond to the issues of domestic violence - which is complex and must be met with a preparedness to change it at a systemic level. At this point in time our current federal government are making noises but they are not actually taking the much-needed steps. Their focus is on policing the politics around events and attempting to control their image to make themselves look good no matter what they do.
This is a story on the use of power and how it is utilised to control others. History has shown that people in positions of power have often used fear as a tool to subjugate vast populations. Propaganda is also another tool used to promote fear when other means would not be 'beneficial' for the cooperation of the general public.
Religion has long been used as a mechanism to control others. People have often heard the term 'the fear of God' but all religion started with ideas and methods to explain the unknown and allay the fears of the unknown - such as death and inexplicable events. Stories of Deities arose in populations for specific purposes - to control fertility, crops, war, life, good luck, ward off evil spirits and the devil.
A different type of religion became more important after the fall of part of the Roman Empire at around 500 AD and continuing to approximately 1300 AD to 1500 AD. This period is often referred to as the 'dark ages'. Catholic Christianity came into prominence and with it came a tremendous amount of power, influence and the ability to use fear as a doctrine to keep the underlings in line. That kind of religious power has waned in modern times but was attained by the ruling classes - now governments and dictatorships - some using similar principles of control.
In my lifetime I never thought I would see a more obvious example than John Howard - but that came later. Only the boom times helped the Howard government and not much else. At the end of their tenure there was no wealth, public education had been destroyed, public health was in crisis, housing had become more unaffordable and welfare stripped. Not to mention the debacle that was the final nail in the government's coffin - industrial reform in the form of WorkChoices. He also "politicised the public service" and "stacked body after body with sycophants and right-wing ideologues to prosecute his causes through society". Through all of this, Howard continued to manipulate public opinion. After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US World Trade Centre, Howard was able to coerce the population into a state of fear using our 'existential threat of terrorist attacks' in a constant rhetoric, slammed home shortly afterwards when, on 6 October 2001, the 'children overboard incident' was reported with great gusto - as the government had insisted that these children had been thrown into the sea deliberately in a ploy to secure rescue and passage. People were horrified. If these people were willing to throw their children into the sea, what else were they capable of? Howard was re-elected shortly afterwards in an election he was destined to lose. The 'children overboard' story was later shown to be untrue. This is an example of Howard using what he called 'terrorism' to heighten already heightened feelings of insecurity and anxiety in this country in regard to a tragic event that occurred on the other side of the world - to swing public opinion and outrage behind him for his benefit. Since 2001, there have been over eighty-two anti-terror laws enacted in this country. There would be more in place since 2019. Many of these have done more damage to the already tenuous freedoms in this country than anywhere else in the world.
The bottom line is that a new narrative has gradually been created by governments, mostly westernised governments in this instance, to focus on the fears and anxieties of populations, using terms like "the war on terror" to distinguish who we are and who we are against as opposed to who we aren't. It is intended to instill fear, but it is also intended to create a complexity of unity and protectionism by providing glaringly obvious answers about the need for more protections for their citizens and the need for more control and yet more power to know the what, when and where of everybody's business. The fear of the 'other' 'the invader' and 'the terrorist' has also allowed the government to strengthen their immigration policies and even "defy international law and send an Iraqi refugee back to his homeland, despite conceding he would likely be killed there".
The narrative that refugees and immigrants are not welcome and are in some way 'bad' as they are taking jobs, will be reliant on welfare and have alleged criminal histories are pushed out to the public in short bursts by the media, on social media and discussed at length on right-wing platforms without opposition. I have seen the ill-informed results of this deliberate propaganda online. Some people really do believe without evidence if the data is presented to them often enough. They are fearful that their way of life and their jobs will be threatened - based on untruths. I am reminded of the 'law of propaganda' attributed to Nazi Joseph Goebbels. "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth".
People who are exposed to information that is not entirely factual but over a constant will become indoctrinated. These are often people who do not actively seek alternative sources of information - which can often be hard to find in the current media climate. I experienced this first hand while phoning people in my electorate in the lead-up to the 2020 Queensland election. I heard many stories from residents, often repeated almost word-for-word from a local newspaper, mainstream news station or a Murdoch newspaper. The only information available to these people is a repeat cycle of propaganda intended to act as a form of brainwashing. It often works if the intended target has nothing else to measure it up against, as is the case in Queensland with close to 100 percent saturation of right-wing newsprint media outlets and mainstream television news along with free-to-air Sky News.
People are constantly bombarded by negative news. There are little to no positive or even neutral stories in any one-day cycle of news. A good percentage of our population are concerned about the future. Some for very good reason regarding their personal circumstances. When the presented 'reality' surrounding them is often superimposed over the top of their everyday living arrangements, it can easily become another stressor in the background. There are often very pertinent reasons to worry, for example, climate change, but when the media impact in a negative way with a constant barrage of information that is designed to be concentrated away from these important issues into the arena of propaganda - then 90 percent of the time people are being coached en masse into an alternate way of thinking.
Take, for example, the way in which the government chooses to persecute minorities while using the media to influence and divide communities. People on welfare and minority groups are often the most likely targets, as they are vulnerable and generally unable to defend themselves.
Michaelia Cash's claims that "there are jobs out there for those who want them" was gleefully reported in a Murdoch-owned newspaper that also reported that there were employers "who were finding it difficult to hire people due to lack of interest". This, of course, was dutifully followed by various television news shows interviewing 'employers' who just happened to be finding it difficult to find workers in their industry. Most reports were light on facts with little research to prove their point. Actual research revealed that there was no evidence that most unemployed people were refusing job opportunities, in fact, there was more evidence to point to the fact that people were actively seeking employment - and under increasingly difficult mutual obligations - it was mandatory to do so.
The Australian 'fair go' - which in reality means for somebody or something to be fair, has been twisted by Scott Morrison into something more sinister to fit into his welfare-persecution model. "I believe in a fair go for those who have a go, and what that means is part of the promise that we all keep as Australians is that we make a contribution and don’t seek to take one". I find this explanation and assumption ironically unfair - but it serves to send a message to people that some are less deserving than others - merely because they are not having a go, no matter what their circumstances. What this does is create division in society - and fear. Instead of the government actually pitching in and giving people that fair go, it has moved responsibility from itself and onto "the leaners" in our society. It has also changed that perspective onto "dole bludgers". The only more persecuted group in our society apart from refugees are our First Nations' people - but that is another entirely unpleasant story in itself.
Divisions in society always create fear. We are back to the fear of the unknown. People who are persecuted fear retaliation - which they feel could come from anywhere. People who are not being persecuted fear becoming that way and react accordingly. People become fearful of one another and instead of helping each other they continue to feed into the same rhetoric, becoming anxious, irritated, irrational and retaliatory. The constant media feeding this toxicity inflames individuals into action, some forming groups in retaliation to their shared helplessness, in turn feeding hatred towards others who they feel are taking away their power - the very people who are being persecuted. Things become more depersonalised as more anger is directed towards those they feel 'deserve it'. In the words of Dr Martin Luther King "Men hate each other because they fear each other, and they fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they are often separated from each other.”
Government works to create a cultural climate of fear and uncertainty if it suits their purpose. They do it to increase their power, as has been demonstrated over centuries. Those in power use the natural predisposition to fear to manipulate and exploit. "Without popular fear, no government could endure more than 24 hours". 'Government rests on public opinion, but public opinion is not the bedrock of government. Public opinion itself rests on something far deeper: Fear'.
Leadership, leaders, rule and rulers of the past have always established themselves on war and conquest. Conquest creates fear but it also creates instability when those who are conquered become restless and are no longer in fear of their lives in greater numbers. Other avenues of power must be sought to control the masses. Religious power had greater influence over those who were reluctant to tempt fate with regard to the rewards of the afterlife and suffering the wrath of the Gods or one single God if they were to fail in their 'obligations'. Obligations often consisted of being submissive and pliable to the whims of those who held the greatest power. The combination of the fear for their lives from warfare and the fear of the Gods from religion was powerful and used for centuries to subjugate a significant proportion of those who were unfortunate enough not to be in those positions of power themselves.
Modern governments refine themselves to popular fears, tending to propagate people's vulnerabilities to attacks from both the outside and the inside. Hence Howard's successful use of the 'war on terror' format to enable his government to not only win an election but to enact legislation for our 'own good and the good of the nation'. The government portray themselves and others - such as our national defence system and our ever-vigilant cyber forces - as our saviors and protectors against these ever-increasing and ever-present threats. It's a very successful ploy and results in not only copious amounts of money funnelled into defence and security projects but unnecessary restrictions of freedoms in our own country. Fear itself, of course, must be maintained as people may be gullible in some respects but if the reported threat fails to materialise - so does the constant fear of the ever-present danger. The government must continually construct situations where it becomes necessary to promote fear and once again - solutions to that ever-present danger.
John Howard left us with the false narrative of the middle-income 'battlers' campaign. He was very successful in convincing people who weren't struggling that they were indeed doing so. He also convinced them that they deserved better. We have maintained the Selfish Society in this country ever since. Morrison picked up where Howard left off - reinventing the 'fair go' campaign and demonising welfare recipients, as mentioned previously. Morrison also did little to allay climate change fears during the national bushfire crisis of 2019 - but managed a spot of videofests promoting himself and his government as the savior of the nation, while politicising the ADF, with announcements of help and funding long after calls for the same had been ringing across the nation while he was on holiday in Hawaii. But Morrison really excelled in his fear mongering during the pandemic.
Apart from ignoring the early warning stages of the pandemic - that we were headed for a worldwide pandemic of epic proportions - and taking early precautionary measures - the Morrison government used the pandemic to launch a 'tsunami of policies and reform agenda'. At the height of the pandemic the government used fear to shore up future prospective opportunities for itself and business. Some businesses have done exceedingly well out of the stimulus offered in the form of Jobkeeper, while many 'less worthy' people, such as casuals, visa workers and gig economy workers missed out on the financial stimulus completely. The government could have quite easily moved the goal posts to include these people. It simply ignored them.
Phrases like gas-led recovery have popped up as the government moved to work with key players in the fossil fuel industry to get us out of the biggest furphy-fear lie of all, 'the coronavirus recession'. Experts have consistently pointed out the fact that the economy was already headed into a recession before the pandemic hit but the government continued to use the pandemic to insist that it brought about the recession and to reassure us all by saying that we must have ways to manage the economy to lead us 'safely' out of the aforementioned 'coronavirus recession'.
The government see things like a pandemic as the perfect vehicle to manage and increasingly anxious population. "Look at us. This is what we are going to do to lead you out of this 'coronavirus recession'. If you are not with us, you are against jobs, prosperity, deregulation to make it work for us, more legislation and more intervention to ensure our ultimate goal".
Under this government's 'stewardship' they have done or want to-
Make it easier to gain access to credit by easing credit restrictions.
Remove excessive regulation. This includes environmental approval.
Changing industrial relations policy - which it has been forced to back away from -Momentarily.
Push to promote private contracting over public funding.
Promote offshore fuel storage.
Push welfare and unemployed into further disadvantage by tightening mutual obligations.
Amend the Freedom of Information Act to make it more difficult to obtain information in regard to sexual assault, bullying and abuse in government.
Tighten immigration rules.
Amend and increase biosecurity.
Counter-terrorism legislation amendments.
Data availability and transparency.
Family law amendments. Family Law Court abolished.
Migration amendments. Prohibiting items in detention centre facilities.
Online safety bill.
Tightening up of confidentiality outside of royal commissions.
More flexible superannuation bill.
Of course, for the government to run effective propaganda campaigns and release packets of data at times to suit their purpose, it needs a compliant delivery service. A tacit media that is owned or managed largely by complicit interests that have a lot to gain by maintaining public compliance through anxiety and fear fuels the perfect storm for a win-win situation. Government sectors, private institutions and 'consultants' connected to the government are also contracted for information and reports to further evidence what myth the government is seeking to perpetrate to convince or frighten the masses into going along with their agenda.
Nothing brings the public together like a national crisis. The fact that the Morrison government failed so miserably in their first test of leadership during the nation's bushfire season of 2019 was soon lost in the beginnings of the pandemic and what the government and the states were doing about it. The mistakes of the government were many, but they were overshadowed by the media's constant bemoaning of the fact that the states weren't pulling their weight sufficiently to handle the pandemic with regards to quarantine. The fact that according to the Australian Constitution the federal government are entirely responsible for quarantine in this country but palmed the responsibility onto the states at National Cabinet was lost in its entirety underneath the rabid reporting.
The pandemic has ended up being a boon for the federal government. They were able to invoke emergency powers in 2020 and the government operated from either the National Cabinet - or the federal government enacted a series of measures that expanded their executive power. There was also a decline in parliamentary scrutiny during this time as parliament was recessed for long periods. Parliament also delegated powers to the government to make major decisions by ministerial decree. '19% of the government decisions and actions made since the beginning of the crisis are immune from parliamentary scrutiny'. This crisis has been good for government business. For the most part, the government has been able to increase its power and lessen their transparency. And some of the changes they have been able to make without scrutiny may become permanent. This in turn increases their ability to remain coercive and in control with new legislation that has been enacted.
The test for the Morrison government now is to remain in control. According to the government, the crisis has been averted and we are once again on the path to 'economic recovery' - whatever that propagandic package might mean. Thus far, many other crises have emerged for the government that have not been favourable. For example, the continued mishandling of the rape allegations and the sexual misconduct of various members of parliament. The vaccination rollout has left the government open to criticism from the public, the Australian Medical Association and the opposition. And the tensions between the government and China regarding their trade deals have been ongoing and damaging to many industries in Australia.
It therefore came as no surprise to me that in the past couple of days the Minister for Defence, Peter Dutton and Home Affairs Secretary, Mike Pezzullo have been sending out warning signals regarding China and their militarisation of the region with hand almost on heart hypothesising on our liberties. We are presented with the hypothetical fear - along with a sense of patriotism and solidarity of purpose. It suits the government to deflect and keep the plebs fixated on yet another ever-present threat looming in the background, regardless of the genuine reality of that threat. I'm sure they will commence implementation of new security measures at any moment to keep us all in line.
The fear of the unknown is probably our most ingrained. Fear of the 'other' - somebody, something or some power we are not familiar with - the threat of an unknown invader - are at this moment intangible. And the government would like to keep it that way.
Our fears often operate in a world that is illogical. Unpacking phobias gives us an idea of how they work. Fear will always trump logic for no other reason than it is a much faster and accessible reaction to the trigger of that fear than the logic of why we should perhaps not feel the fear. People don't often stop to think about why they are having a fearful reaction while they are in that moment of their terrifying reality. Smart governments know that fear bypasses logic and they will develop marketing strategies and signals to target their audience on a massive scale.
A couple of examples of this was the successful implementation of two fantastical lies that circulated before the 2019 election against the Labor party regarding franking credits and the death tax. Franking credits was a justifiable reform removing the cash refund and returning it to the pre- Howard and Costello years where the tax offset was just that - it was limited to offset income. The government perpetuated the lie that the majority of the people who were receiving franking credits were those on the lowest retirement taxable incomes. This failed to take into consideration the fact that many of these retirees were recipients of superannuation - which is not subject to tax in the retirement phase and therefore excluded from taxable income. The government were claiming that 80% of recipients would be affected. The reality was quite different. The success of this scare campaign was brought home more so after the election when pensioners and retirees who didn't own a single share - were asking when they would start to receive their refunds.
The death tax misinformation scare campaign started as a slow burn regarding inheritance tax - which was refuted as having absolutely no merit as death tax 'inheritance tax' had been killed off permanently in the 1970s. Social media platforms became a massive flood of misinformation as the election campaign picked up in April 2019. Direct messaging regarding the dangers of the 'death tax' began hitting a mass audience, fringe groups, right-wing groups and some Coalition MPs began pushing out the same message to their followers. People began to share this misinformation with their friends, talk about it in their groups - and finally began to approach their local Labor MPs in their electorates with their fears regarding a non-existent death tax. Many sitting Labor MPs were fielding phone calls, messages and face-to-face meetings with people who were terrified that their families would miss out on their inheritance upon their deaths. The death tax lie was peddled so effectively that it was all people could see. There was no logic to their reasoning. If they saw it and their friends were also discussing their fears regarding the same information - then it had to have had some merit, regardless of the lack of evidence.
As long as fear remains in our society, there will always be ways to exploit it. Until we stop being afraid as a collective and are able to live in a self-assured society that has the tools to resolve some of our most basic fears - it will continue to be utilised in the same ways.
The day we embrace our fears will be the day that the government no longer has any power over us. There are no easy solutions while government continues to actively foster misinformation for their own benefit. Societies themselves must work to become more informed in regard to identifying the triggers and addressing the logic behind them. They say as individuals we don't hold much power - but individually we can work to change our own belief systems with regard to our fears and continue to convey that message to others - in much the same way as conveying the message of fear is utilised. Through word of mouth, through groups, social media and alternative news sources. People must become aware of the truths behind the fear-and-scare-for-gain campaign.
It's more important than ever that people see the truth. Fear without doubt has contributed to the rise of the most totalitarian states of the past. It contributed to the rise of Nazi Germany. The people of Germany originally didn't think any of those atrocities could have happened to them and in their country - and yet they did. By the time they realised what was happening, it was too late.
As I watch what is happening with this government, I feel fear. Not fear that has been fostered by any of the propaganda they have peddled - but fear of what has recently been revealed by a Pentecostal prime minister who has finally crossed the 'church-state divide' in a such a way that it can be seen as going against the Australian Constitution. I can only hope that there are others out there who see this for what it is and are prepared to put a stop to it rather than glossing over in yet another display of pompous polishing propaganda.
The future of this country can't remain in the hands of a prime minister who has slowly taken over by stealth and is finally revelling in his reasoning behind it.
People should be afraid of that.