Blog 5 Fear

Fear is a highly effective motivator. When threatened, people can be manipulated to do nearly anything in order to save themselves. Often, fear is used by people who are in authority, or people of a higher power; they use it to their advantage and often gain more power using it. Fear instills a sense of urgency in the people it is being used against; they feel as though the person officially means business. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” they explain how you live on tiny thread that is so easy for God to break, “The God that holds you over the pits of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over a fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire, he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else” (154) This description places a very real fear in the puritans, because it makes them realize how good they needed to be in order not to be condemned to hell. Everyone has a fear of the unknown, life after death goes along the same lines; the puritans scared everyone straight by bringing in a higher power that warns about what happens to bad people when they die. People also fear accusation, because innocent people are found guilty all the time. Being falsely accused in medieval times often meant death and that terrified people. In The Crucible, girls were being accused left and right, so the use of scapegoats was really high. This is the same in many other situations cause hysteria; in our little social experiment Maddi quickly gave up one of her friends in order to save herself, she used scapegoats such as “I’m not the only one in here that does it.” And “she was with me when I did it” these let her avoid the blame and took the spotlight off her. Fear has many different effects on people, but in the eyes of the person using it, it is a very useful tool. When fear is used, it can make people fess up, or stand down depending on the situation; if it is being used to call people out like our experiment, or if it is used to eliminate rebellions, such as the KKK did during The Civil Rights Movement. Fear is a motivator that is highly effective because, depending on the situation, it can threaten your grades, the way people see you, or even your life.