Bad decisions driven by fear, not stupidity

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/05/2021 (1675 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Fear is the mind-killer.”

I thought of this phrase as I watched the latest round of pandemic-fueled choices in Manitoba, from anti-mask rallies to churches suing the government to overturn public-health guidelines.

It is part of a litany against fear used by the Bene Gesserit religious order in Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction series Dune.

Perhaps Herbert was inspired by Shakespeare, whose Julius Caesar observed: “Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once. “ Or perhaps his inspiration was any number of religious texts, in which fear is a sign of spiritual weakness or philosophical failure — or both.

Whatever the source, Herbert’s phrase sounds so much better than simply saying “frightened people do stupid things.”

We live in a time when more and more people are frightened about what is going on, or what could happen. The combined existential threats of pandemic infection, framed by a planet in ecological crisis and teetering on the brink of nuclear war, are quite enough to scare anyone who actually thinks about the world beyond Netflix these days.

Of course, some people plug their ears, close their eyes and pretend their bubble of personal privilege can insulate them from the world. The rest of us want to make a difference, but often don’t know where to start. And when the usual leadership of our society is missing in action or seems to have no clue what to do, that’s when trouble brews.

Using fear to whip up — and therefore control — a crowd is an age-old tactic. If our ancestral memory, embedded in our reptilian brain, urges us instinctively to choose “fight or flight,” fear is a spark that can ignite either choice.

Of course, our social brain is evidence of how far we have evolved past that reptilian reflex response. But it also explains why Herbert’s Bene Gesserit believed that “fear is the mind-killer”: fear short-circuits normal human thought, and reduces us from rational, thinking and caring individuals into frightened and volatile elements of a frenzied mob.

Group-think — where the group determines the thoughts (and choices) of individuals, instead of allowing people to think and choose for themselves — is always dangerous. When the group is led by people who put their own self-interest first, or who are fuelled by their own fear instead of wisdom and sound judgment, however, it can quickly become dangerous.

Evidence becomes irrelevant, because conclusions are predetermined by leaders intent on controlling the group. Critical thinking is forbidden, and anyone who steps out of line can expect a hostile response.

(There are lots of political examples of this, though the ongoing ethical implosion of the Republican Party in the United States is an obvious one.)

In Manitoba, both the anti-mask demonstrations and legal challenges from some churches against public-health guidelines are examples of how fear can short-circuit our brains and lead us to make bad decisions.

We live in anxious times, for sure, but people before us lived in anxious times, too, without turning off their brains out of fear. My grandmother survived the Spanish flu, tuberculosis, the Great Depression, the end of empires, two World Wars and the Cold-War threat of nuclear annihilation.

The average person back then did just as she did: kept calm, and carried on. Do what you can about the problems you have right now, hope tomorrow will be better, and make sure that your choices today are guided by wisdom, not driven by fear.

Today, I am in awe of those health-care workers and others providing essential services, who face their own fears every day and go to work, vaccinated or not — including teachers. My heart also goes out to students, who are still studying (at home or at school) despite all the challenges they face.

So when I first heard about the anti-mask rallies and legal challenges, I confess my immediate response was anger and incredulity, wondering how so many people could be so stupid, together.

Then I realized these incidents were not really about stupidity. “Fear is the mind-killer,” after all. Groups of frightened people, without good leaders, can be led to believe and do anything.

Granted, missteps by the provincial government haven’t helped the situation, especially when public-health decisions appear to be yo-yoed by politics, every week. Yet by consistently following those public-health guidelines, most Manitoban religious groups (including most Christian churches) have been demonstrating wise leadership in their communities, often at considerable cost.

The foolish protests of a few other fringe Christian groups aren’t evidence of their spiritual strength, therefore, but of their spiritual weakness.

Driven by overwhelming fear, not by an abundance of faith, these groups have utterly failed to demonstrate the humility, love and compassion for others that their Christian tradition expects of its followers. Their example deserves pity, not applause — along with more tickets and fewer headlines.

Peter Denton is an activist, author and scholar, working from home in rural Manitoba.