7 ms·

Unfortunately the cynic in me says there's more money in keeping people fearful.

iammyIP 9y ago
Nah, i don't think that's it. Fear is a feeling, which is per default not any more or less connected to "i need to buy this thing" than any other feeling. So why should fear encourage spending money more than any other feeling. How about the idea that a joyful person is much more inclined to spend money - but on different things. Just imagine a world without any fear, just with different kind of markets and the same amount of money.
- astrobe_ 9y ago
  > Nah, i don't think that's it. Fear is a feeling, which is per default not any more or less connected to "i need to buy this thing" than any other feeling It seems to me that a significant part of the press and TV news are selling just that - fear. It doesn't take long to find a word like "threat", example taken at random, on the first page of the NYT ("Shinzo Abe: Solidarity Against the North Korean Threat").
  - chii 9y ago
    If you have fear, then you'd be more willing to give up certain freedoms to rid said fear. Freedoms such as privacy. Mark my words, there's going to definitely be massive facial recognition on the population, in the name of keeping you "safe".
- Fricken 9y ago
  Joyful people don't spend much money because they're already satisfied. When people dish out for large homes, expensive cars and whatever else, they do it because they're insecure about something. If you subtract the cost of our insecurities and fears from the cost of living, life is actually really cheap.
- tr1ck5t3r 9y ago
  Putting the fear of God into people has worked since the time of Jesus. Dont change what's not broken.
- coldtea 9y ago
  >Nah, i don't think that's it. Fear is a feeling, which is per default not any more or less connected to "i need to buy this thing" than any other feeling. So why should fear encourage spending money more than any other feeling. Because amassing stuff gives psychological relief from such anxiety ("shopping therapy"). The same reason people on midlife crises go on shopping sprees... >* Just imagine a world without any fear, just with different kind of markets and the same amount of money.* Not all possible worlds have the same level of shopping activity. It took heavy advertising and quite a lot of conditioning and pressure for early 20th century society to turn it into the shopping culture that it has today.
zo1 9y ago
Criminals should be fearful, so that they think twice before committing a crime against an innocent.
alexashka 9y ago
I don't know that there's anyone out there twisting an evil moustache, counting the profits from keeping anyone fearful. News do fear mongering for the same reasons people write click-bait article titles - it works. It works because humans are not that far removed from our ancestors - the primal buttons are the easiest to push and they work on the largest number of people. Anyone whose job it is to compete for people's attention, knows this very well. To pretend there's people far above who are 'bad', or 'good' is a coping mechanism to avoid seeings people and life for what it is :)
- coldtea 9y ago
  >I don't know that there's anyone out there twisting an evil moustache, counting the profits from keeping anyone fearful. Doesn't have to be some actual singular person. Businesses, media etc work as collective entities, alone and together, towards their goals, that is optimizing their environment for maximum profit -- similar to how our cells, which are living things in themselves, do. If profit is the basic measure of success for an organization, it will reward those individuals behaviors that help it grow -- to the point that a perfectly normal company, like WV, from seemingly decent people, will create execs that lie about their pollution emissions, bribe politicians, etc., and -- among tons of similar examples. Similarly, it would try to expunge those in the organization that do moral or consumer friendly stuff that costs the organization money. >Anyone whose job it is to compete for people's attention, knows this very well. To pretend there's people far above who are 'bad', or 'good' is a coping mechanism to avoid seeings people and life for what it is People that do "what works" because it brings money in, other considerations be damned, are bad, end of story. Everything else is a coping mechanism to avoid seeings people and life for what it is (and for them to rationalize to themselves that they "just do their job").
  - alexashka 9y ago
    You're perfectly describing capitalism's essence, with a cherry on top, labelling it 'bad'. The point I was aiming for, is that people like what's easy, what's natural. You're saying 'they're bad'. That's actually the Christian axiom from what I understand, that people are inherently sinful and bad. I'd like to suggest that feeling that way is a dead end. In other words - I actually agree with everything you're saying, minus the 'bad' label. I label it 'I'd do it differently' which's subtle but very important. Labelling what most people around you are good with, bad, is simply going to make you a misanthrone [0] and that'll prevent you from leading the life you want :) The point regarding coping - labelling people bad and good is an extreme simplification used for children. Once you're an adult, it's much more helpful to understand that what another does, you do in other ways, maybe much more subtle, and let go of harsh judgements. Judgements separate people into us vs them, which's what leads to most of the behaviour you're labelling bad in the first place. It's a very subtle point, that most people endlessly miss. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misanthropy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misanthropy

Nah, i don't think that's it. Fear is a feeling, which is per default not any more or less connected to "i need to buy this thing" than any other feeling. So why should fear encourage spending money more than any other feeling. How about the idea that a joyful person is much more inclined to spend money - but on different things. Just imagine a world without any fear, just with different kind of markets and the same amount of money.

astrobe_ 9y ago
> Nah, i don't think that's it. Fear is a feeling, which is per default not any more or less connected to "i need to buy this thing" than any other feeling It seems to me that a significant part of the press and TV news are selling just that - fear. It doesn't take long to find a word like "threat", example taken at random, on the first page of the NYT ("Shinzo Abe: Solidarity Against the North Korean Threat").
- chii 9y ago
  If you have fear, then you'd be more willing to give up certain freedoms to rid said fear. Freedoms such as privacy. Mark my words, there's going to definitely be massive facial recognition on the population, in the name of keeping you "safe".
Fricken 9y ago
Joyful people don't spend much money because they're already satisfied. When people dish out for large homes, expensive cars and whatever else, they do it because they're insecure about something. If you subtract the cost of our insecurities and fears from the cost of living, life is actually really cheap.
tr1ck5t3r 9y ago
Putting the fear of God into people has worked since the time of Jesus. Dont change what's not broken.
coldtea 9y ago
>Nah, i don't think that's it. Fear is a feeling, which is per default not any more or less connected to "i need to buy this thing" than any other feeling. So why should fear encourage spending money more than any other feeling. Because amassing stuff gives psychological relief from such anxiety ("shopping therapy"). The same reason people on midlife crises go on shopping sprees... >* Just imagine a world without any fear, just with different kind of markets and the same amount of money.* Not all possible worlds have the same level of shopping activity. It took heavy advertising and quite a lot of conditioning and pressure for early 20th century society to turn it into the shopping culture that it has today.

zo1 9y ago

Criminals should be fearful, so that they think twice before committing a crime against an innocent.

alexashka 9y ago

I don't know that there's anyone out there twisting an evil moustache, counting the profits from keeping anyone fearful. News do fear mongering for the same reasons people write click-bait article titles - it works. It works because humans are not that far removed from our ancestors - the primal buttons are the easiest to push and they work on the largest number of people. Anyone whose job it is to compete for people's attention, knows this very well. To pretend there's people far above who are 'bad', or 'good' is a coping mechanism to avoid seeings people and life for what it is :)

coldtea 9y ago
>I don't know that there's anyone out there twisting an evil moustache, counting the profits from keeping anyone fearful. Doesn't have to be some actual singular person. Businesses, media etc work as collective entities, alone and together, towards their goals, that is optimizing their environment for maximum profit -- similar to how our cells, which are living things in themselves, do. If profit is the basic measure of success for an organization, it will reward those individuals behaviors that help it grow -- to the point that a perfectly normal company, like WV, from seemingly decent people, will create execs that lie about their pollution emissions, bribe politicians, etc., and -- among tons of similar examples. Similarly, it would try to expunge those in the organization that do moral or consumer friendly stuff that costs the organization money. >Anyone whose job it is to compete for people's attention, knows this very well. To pretend there's people far above who are 'bad', or 'good' is a coping mechanism to avoid seeings people and life for what it is People that do "what works" because it brings money in, other considerations be damned, are bad, end of story. Everything else is a coping mechanism to avoid seeings people and life for what it is (and for them to rationalize to themselves that they "just do their job").
- alexashka 9y ago
  You're perfectly describing capitalism's essence, with a cherry on top, labelling it 'bad'. The point I was aiming for, is that people like what's easy, what's natural. You're saying 'they're bad'. That's actually the Christian axiom from what I understand, that people are inherently sinful and bad. I'd like to suggest that feeling that way is a dead end. In other words - I actually agree with everything you're saying, minus the 'bad' label. I label it 'I'd do it differently' which's subtle but very important. Labelling what most people around you are good with, bad, is simply going to make you a misanthrone [0] and that'll prevent you from leading the life you want :) The point regarding coping - labelling people bad and good is an extreme simplification used for children. Once you're an adult, it's much more helpful to understand that what another does, you do in other ways, maybe much more subtle, and let go of harsh judgements. Judgements separate people into us vs them, which's what leads to most of the behaviour you're labelling bad in the first place. It's a very subtle point, that most people endlessly miss. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misanthropy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misanthropy