Samuel Taylor Coleridge was right when he claimed, 'In politics, what begins in fear usually ends up in folly.' Political activists are more inclined, though, to heed an observation from Richard Nixon: 'People react to fear, not love. They don't teach that in Sunday school, but it's true.' That principle, which guided the late president's political strategy throughout his career, is the sine qua non of contemporary political campaigning. Marketers of products and services ranging from car alarms to TV news programs have taken it to heart as well. The short answer to why Americans harbor so many misbegotten fears is that immense power and money await those who tap into our moral insecurities and supply us with symbolic substitutes. .Barry Glassner
About This Quote
The above quote is a very profound statement and for once it is not something that I agree with. I know that political activists are more inclined to heed an observation from Richard Nixon that 'People react to fear not love' however this quote is only partly true. People react to fear, not love, but people do react out of fear even though it may not be love. If you watched the recent election of 2016 then you would know that there was a lot of fear in America during the presidential campaign which caused many people to support Trump although they didn't actually love him.
I am sure that most of the people who voted for Trump knew that he was a bad person but they felt like they had no other choice because they were scared of the other candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The fear caused many people to make bad decisions on who they would vote for even though they knew they would be voting for a very bad person.
Source: The Culture Of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid Of The Wrong Things
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