We live in a fear based society. I realized that, but not as much as I did when I heard something that really pressed it home.
After September 11th, 2001, we have lived in fear. The act of those terrorists showed us that we were vulnerable, and that made us afraid. After all, they could get us at any time, at any place they wanted. That day, they even cleared out all of the tall buildings in downtown Jacksonville. Now, what purpose would it serve to take down the buildings in Jacksonville? The naval bases yes, but not the buildings downtown. If they wanted more targets, Sears Tower or the Transamerica building would have more of an impact.
But they cleared these buildings out of fear. The fear of terrorism hangs with us constantly. We truly have been lucky that we don’t have people strapping bombs to themselves and setting them off in crowded areas like they do in other parts of the world. But we still fear it.
This fear has allowed us to look the other way as government agencies were created to deal with it. We look the other way our rights are reduced “because we need to stay safe”. We look the other way as people are tortured “because it is necessary to keep us safe”.
But the fear goes deeper than that, and it has been going on forever, we just never realized it. when you look at our advertising, how much of it is fear based? Not sold yet? Let’s say we have to buy this acne cream because no one will want to go out with us if we have acne. It makes us afraid that if we don’t buy this product, we’ll be alone.
The same can be said for all of the body building and weight loss products out there. They want us to be well built so we are healthier and can attract people. The other fear they put into us is the fear of death. Unless you lose weight, you will die sooner. You’ll live longer if you are thinner, and by the way, we just happen to have the product to get you there. Uh huh.
I was watching the documentary Bowling for Columbine, and was impressed by one of the people that was interviewed. He led me to see what I have been saying here. We have had ads for years that were fear based, and we really never noticed it. We had to get this product or we wouldn’t be cool or popular. We have to have the brand name jeans. We have to not be gray, or balding. We have to look younger. Because what happens if we aren’t? Well, we become not popular and end up alone.
That’s right. This is fear based marketing. We have it, and we don’t realize it. 9/11 put a new face on fear, but it just added to what we already had. It built on what we had stacked up already.
What we need to do is see things work what they are, and remove our fear form that. Simply by knowing it is there will help. The rest is up to you to recognize it and not get caught up in it.