The Victorian Age, for all its humbug was a period of rapid progress,because men were dominated by hope rather than fear. If we are again to have progress, we must again be dominated by hope Bertrand Russell

Fear is a natural phenomenon which can keep us safe from harms way and warn us into evasive action from predators and dangerous situations. In primitive times our fear protected us from wild animals and the dangers of a hostile environment. Today in western industrial society there is less chance of attack from wild animals but we have other things to fear.

How do we regulate that fear though? What should we be fearful of and how do we justify our fear is the questions we need to ask. The state of fear brings out an instinct for survival and sometimes irrational behaviour. If we live in fear that is about all we can focus on, in this condition it is difficult to think of anything else.

So fear then is an natural, healthy, condition that can keep us out of danger. There also is irrational fear, that can lead us into danger. The fear we speak about here, is manufactured fear. The fear of the enemy, created by the “military industrial complex” The fear of impending doom brought on by the insurance industry, the fear of losing your job, your home, being on the street. We lock our doors, build walls and fences, talking to neighbours, we fear becoming to involved. The list can be endless and all can be mostly irrational fear created by the corporations who make billions on profits from it. We have been living under this debilitating fear for so long that our natural instinct for fear has been supplanted by the manufactured fear of the public relations industry.

Only when we can lose the irrational fear that can dominate us, can we deal with the problems arising from that fear and live a less fretful life. And our understanding of this is what corporations who profit from irrational fear, fear most.