Compelling Fears

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 3 asks why do we fear nonstatistical threats? It surveys “culture of fear” accounts that make the case for the role of politically motivated manipulation in generating fears of nonstatistical threats: political and corporate agents manipulate populations toward having fears that will serve political or economic goals. While these accounts offer valuable insights, they insufficiently consider what makes fearers prone to such manipulation. The chapter contends that, in some cases, people displace fears of greater threats (e.g., of suffering, death, loss, failure, and unpredictability) onto more manageable proxy threats (e.g., migrants) when the fears of great threats are too difficult to cope with. It concludes that processes of coming to fear proxy threats are more relational than psychoanalytic accounts of displacement suggest. Fears of proxy threats are relationally acquired, experienced, expressed, and interpreted. We should understand fears of great threats as ones agents compel: together, we push these fears away.