Selling the Gospel of Surrender

June 6th, 2010

In many ways, the fear business is all about control.

Who controls what. And whom.

Surrender

Is "surrender" the way out?

And based on existing evidence, past and present, fear is a pretty good stick for herding people into your control.

The goal of all fear and its merchants is surrender.

Your surrender.

My surrender.

Individually, or as a group. (Fear merchants offer group discounts.)

“Let us do it for you.” (Or to you.)

“Let us show you the way.” (And don’t open your eyes until we tell you.)

“Let us take away the doubt and the uncertainty.” (Never mind that we put a lot of it there.)

“Now, doesn’t that feel better?” (Especially if you don’t think about it.)

I don’t know about you, but to me, something doesn’t feel right about that kind of feeling better.

I want my eyes open.

I want full disclosure.

I want to know the bad news, if it’s relevant.

And I want to be able to fully enjoy the good news without having it compromised by fears.

Don’t try to sell me surrender in the guise of empowerment.

Without fears to cloud my judgment, I’m not buying it.

I guess I feel a firing coming on.

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The Security of “What’s the Use?”

May 23rd, 2010

“What’s the use?” is the most versatile and powerful weapon for disempowerment in fear’s arsenal.

It can be applied to just about anything. And works every time.

When that question creeps into any possibility, it slows the flow of the energy that’s needed to drive you to accomplishment. It pollutes that energy, dilutes it, and replaces the lost energy with doubt and the urge to surrender. (Whispering: “Just go ahead … give in.”)

How do you fight it?

Well, you can ignore it, or try to. And push on as if the question and the fear weren’t supposed to be there.

You can try to bully your way past them and keep on keeping on even as you feel them dragging at you from behind.

Either way, you’re denying the fear. And there are plenty of modern-day sages producing books and DVDs encouraging you to do just that.

But denial of fear is a tough way to go. For anybody.

So most people choose instead to deny their desires. It feels a lot easier, and seems like it’s a lot more “secure.” Denying your desires is amost always more comforting that addressing your fears … in the short run.

All of which is why “What’s the use?” works so well.

I prefer to address the seductive power of “What’s the use?” at its source.

I say, deny nothing.

Fire the fear. (Here’s how.)

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Fear of Information

May 12th, 2010

On this past Sunday, May 9, President Obama addressed the graduates of Hampton Univerity and warned them of the threat of information to them, to our country, and to the very concept of democracy.Presient Obama & IPAD

He said: “You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments … with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.”

The number one fear of the fear merchants is the free flow of information. More available information complicates their efforts. That’s why life before the Internet was so much easier — and easier to keep under control — for the fear merchants, both in business and government.

Information breeds choices. Information sparks questioning and consideration. It gives people things to think about.

Fear merchants don’t like that.

Fear merchants like control. They like options that aren’t real options at all.

Fear merchants massage information to suit your fears and their agendas. To them, free-flowing information is a nuisance … an expensive nuisance.

When the President speaks of information as a means of “empowerment,” who does he really want to be empowered?

Real emancipation comes from firing your fears. More information, and more choices, make that process easier.

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Two Sodas a Week?

February 11th, 2010

The fear merchants are at it again. (Then again, they never really stop.)

On this morning’s edition of “Fox & Friends,” on-air hostess Gretchen Carlson introduced the show’s medical “A Team” to discuss recent discoveries concerning a link between carbonated soft drinks and pancreatic cancer.

Is soda cancer America's newest fear?

Is soda cancer America's newest fear?

Ms. Carlson set it up this way: “A new study links soda to one of the most deadliest forms of cancer. The report was published in the Journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Here’s what it says: That drinking at least two soft drinks a week (who doesn’t do that?) can double your risk of developing pancreatic cancer.”

I am sure that Coca-Cola, Pepsi and the rest of the soft drink industry were thrilled by this news. Or was it even news? Upon closer analysis by F&F’s panel of three physicians, we learned that:

  • “Pancreatic cancer, as you know, is a very serious cancer.” (Yes, one of the on-air experts actually said that. I guess his context was that pancreatic cancer should not be mistakenly included among those cancers that we would normally think of as “frivolous?”)
  • The study that was cited– from a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research — “is actually quite interesting but I’m not sure if it shows a direct cause to pancreatic cancer.”
  • While the study provides evidence to suggest that there may be a correlation between sodas and pancreatic cancer, one A Team member concluded that “I don’t think it’s proving a direct cause to it.”
  • A second member of the panel agreed that “the numbers are small in this study. It’s 60,000 people, but only 115 get pancreatic cancer. I think we’ve got to further study other sugary drinks.”

So … do we know that there is a direct correlation between two soft drinks a week and pancreatic cancer? No, I guess not. Not really.

Not without further study.

In other words, what we have here is science-suggested hear-say posing as a reasonable warning without scientifically proven evidence to substantiate the warning.

Where I come from, we call that fear mongering. It’s what fear merchants do to foster marketplace appetites when facts are scarce.

And don’t be surprised if the soft drink industry comes back with an immediate and fact-laden rebuttal, all the while working on a pancreas-friendly “natural” liquid refreshment whose lanch date was suddenly moved up by three months.

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The Fear Feast

December 17th, 2009

CB037965It must all be inspired, in some ironic and maybe even perverted way, by the presence of the holiday season, but it seems to me that the fear merchants are working feverishly to hold your attention.

This is just a sampling of what I encountered this morning:

Al Gore reading “end of the world” poetry on CBS’ The Early Show.
(Other Early Show contributions: A famous golfer’s philandering dad, a film actor’s lesbian tendencies, authorities suspect foul play in the case of Utah’s missing mom [wasn't the same thing once suspected in the case of the missing South Carolina governor?], women are more wrinkly than men, the national debt sets a new record, …)

Enough of that. What else is on?

On ABC’s Good Morning, America: A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll reflects “persistent economic discontent and growing skepticism.” So good morning, indeed, America!

Other Good Morning, America contributions: why men cheat, the growing plague of near-sightedness, pets need health insurance too, a mom tweets her toddler’s death … yuch!

Anything fearful on NBC’s Today: Brazilian court separates New Jersey dad from his son. That’s just a start (i.e., are any of our children safe?)

Other Today contributions: Phony Web sites scam holiday shoppers, the year’s “most disappointing” list, the nine fattiest holiday foods, a nationwide recall on “killer” shades (yes, they’re out to strangle your children, … the ones that happen to evade Brazilian courts).

Had enough? I have. And it’s not even 8 a.m. yet.

Those are the fear merchants at work, inviting us to celebrate our needs with a feast of fear.

Here … have another helping.

 

Carroll Conklin is the author of Fire Your Fears: How the Fear Merchants Are Capturing Your Wallet and Soul … And How to Stop Them. Available from Bright Stone Press at http://www.fireyourfears.com

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Heart-Attack Snow

December 9th, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most important — and most used — weapons of persuasion in the fear merchants’ arsenal is the casual exaggeration … especially one made to drive home a needful point.

Heart attack ahead?

Heart attack ahead?

That approach was on display this morning — thanks to the fear merchants at NBC News — who turned weather into a mortal threat.

In describing the impact of the season’s first snow storm, the on-air reporter clearly defined the danger of snow:

“Here in Waukesha, Wisconsin, it’s been snowing heavily for about twelve hour now. It is a thick, wet, heavy snow … heart-attack snow for those trying to shovel this morning.” (Today Show, December 9, 2009)

Yes, heart attacks have resulted from individuals over-exerting their cardio-vascular system while shoveling snow … and while running, and while making love, and while fighting, … in fact in a number of ways. What almost all those instances almost certainly had in common was not snow, but a cardio-vascular system on the verge of self-destruction, whether age-, disease- or behavior-inflicted.

So why label snow as heart-attack worthy? Could it be because fear equals ratings? Because worried viewers watch more and buy more? (Yes, they do.)

Because confirmed victims are more loyal news viewers?

All true.

So are the newsmakers (and it’s not just the ones at NBC) stoking our fears for our benefit, or for our loyalty?

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Fear … Simplified?

December 2nd, 2009

I have heard at least one voice raise the issue that Fire Your Fears!, however well-meaning, may be doing all of us a dis-service by over-simplifying fears and the damage they can do to our well-being.

It’s just not that easy, or so I am being told. If you fire your fears (if such a thing can really be done), what’s to keep them from coming back?42-16478727

My answer to that is: You. The “new” you. The you who has discovered what fears really are and that they are fire-able.

Can fired fears come back? Sure, they can try. But why would you let them back into the” business” of your life?

It’s your life. Your business. Your decision.

That’s what Fire Your Fears! is really about … the power you have over your fears all the time. The power that’s automatic and unbeatable unless you give it away to your fears.

The process of actually firing your fears is ridiculously simple. More importantly, the process itself is almost meaningless without the knowledge of what fears really are and the awareness of your inalienable power over them.

It’s that knowledge that makes the firing really work.

Over-simplified? Those are your fears talking, trying to worry you out of your power.

Trying to get you to dismiss the knowledge that can render them irrelevant, and unemployed.

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Obama and Fear

November 24th, 2009
Do fear-think and transparency mix?

Do fear-think and transparency mix?

One of the campaign promises repeated profusely by candidate Obama was all about transparency in his administration.

Would that mean no fear merchandising? No promotion of “fear-think” to advance this or that agenda? We might think so.

We should have known better.

Every presidential administration in the history of America has included a well-stocked cabinet of fear merchants, working feverishly to win our support or obedience for this or that agenda and doing so with threats almost always more anticipated than realized.

It worked for George Washington. Wars provide fear mrchants with their finest opportunities for turning maybe’s into activist causes.

It worked for Abraham Lincoln, a master at motivating with doubts and fears (motivating others and himself).

It worked for Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Kennedy. (How they each used fear is spelled out in the book: http://www.fireyoufears.com)

No President has been an exception, including the current one.

But what if the President (or anyone else) is trying to use fear to motivate us to act for a good cause? To do the right thing?

I say, Why? Why not give us the facts? Why resort to fears, which so rarely leave room for the facts?

Whether President Obama’s poltical and social agenda is better or worse than those of any previous President is not the point here. The point is … why resort to fear?

And I ask this of President Obama and his administration, as well as of all the administrations of his predecessors …

Why resort to fears? Why can’t you trust your constituents with the facts?

Is it because you think they are too stupid? Or because you think they are too smart?

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Abracadabra … Fear!

November 19th, 2009
Harry Houdini, who understood both magic and fear.

Harry Houdini, who understood both magic and fear.

I’ve talked about the relationship between magic and fear, but never written about that relationship.

What they have in common is this: the less we know about them, the better they work.

If we’re watching a magic trick, the fun and entertainment come from the fact that we don’t know how the trick is accomplished. It looks like magic, even if we don’t really believe in the supernatural forces that the idea of magic implies. For the moment, as a member of the magician’s audience, we are willing to suspend doubt and embrace the belief that it might really be magic at work. We’re willing to be wowed and tricked, for the fun of it all.

Besides, for a moment or two, the suspension of doubt that we extend to the magician doesn’t really cost us anything. Fear, on the other hand, does.

Like magic tricks, fears work best when we don’t really understand what’s going on. The fear merchants get to us most effectively when we accept their suggestions of threat with willing — and even unquestioning – belief.

When we see clearly what the fear merchants are up to, and understand how their “tricks” actually work, it becomes difficult to take their fear tactics very seriously.

That’s why I say in Fire Your Fears! that what doesn’t frighten me … amuses me.

When someone reveals to you how a magic trick works, you might find its “mechanics” interesting. But for you, the mystery and magic are gone from that trick forever. You can’t put them back.

The same is true for our fears. Their impact dissolves in the wake of our enlightened understanding of what those fears really are, and how easily those fears (and the fear merchants) can be fired.

If you want to find out how to fire fears, go to http://www.fireyourfears.com

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The Moments that Slip By

November 7th, 2009

CB037965One of the beautiful things about firing fears is how portable this approach is.

Once you are familiar with — and thoroughly understand — the process of firing fears, you can do it anywhere, any time a fear might pop up looking for the opportunity to do some work for you.

Everything you need to do the firing is already in your head. And you can actually accomplish the firing in a minute or less, with just a little bit of practice.

Think of all the time you save by firing your fears rather than listening to them. The most “expensive” moments of our lives are the moments when we pass on an opportunity to do something different, or new, or bold, maybe daring, maybe even outrageous … moments that pass with a whimper when instead we do nothing, waiting for the opportunity and the moment to pass (at the urging of our fears), to be lost, forever. Sneaky little hidden fears are the source of that hesitation, and the true mothers of our regrets.

If we could fire those fears the moment they pop up, or maybe when they sneak up on us and show their true intentions, firing them instantly and thoroughly, without anger or hesitation, how many moments could we save? How many fond memories could we add to our lives? How many regrets could we avoid?

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