The Age of Manufactured Fear
Turn on the news, scroll through social media, or even sit down at the dinner table, and you’ll feel it: the weight of fear. Our culture has been steeped in fear for decades, and it is now at a boiling point. Media outlets and platforms craft sound bites, memes, and headlines that are designed not to inform us, but to trigger us.
A jeans commercial should not dictate our emotions. Yet in today’s climate, even trivial events are weaponized into emotional battles. Fear has become a tool of control.
The Crisis of Certainty
Comedian Chris Rock once described our times as a “crisis of certainty.” We have been trained to believe our opinions are 100% correct and anyone who disagrees must be 100% wrong. This black-and-white worldview shuts the door on growth, learning, and compassion.
Who benefits from this? Not us, as souls. The ones who benefit are the “puppet masters” — those who profit when we are divided, angry, and easy to manipulate.
The Boiling Frog Effect
There’s an old metaphor: throw a frog into boiling water, and it will leap out. Place it in cool water and heat it slowly, and the frog won’t realize the danger until it’s too late. This is how fear culture has worked on us. Small, incremental increases in outrage and fear keep us simmering until we are no longer thinking for ourselves.
The result? A society where compromise is rare, neutrality is gone, and emotional reaction has replaced rational thought.
My Wake-Up Call: A Dream of Control
Recently, I had a vivid dream. In it, people turned violently against each other for no clear reason. Later, they reappeared as perfect clones — smiling, empty-eyed, and demanding submission. The dream revealed how fear, left unchecked, escalates from division to violence, and finally to assimilation.
It was a stark reminder: if we don’t break the cycle, we risk losing not just our freedom, but our very ability to feel and think for ourselves.
A Personal Reflection
Even I, someone deeply aware of fear culture, found myself caught in it. Over time, I developed an intense emotional reaction to Donald Trump — not from firsthand knowledge, but from endless clips, jokes, and sound bites designed to provoke.
When I realized I could not even hear his voice without breaking out in goosebumps, I had to ask: Is this truly my feeling, or one implanted by media consumption?
That question broke the spell. It helped me see how much of my emotional energy had been hijacked.
The Three Goals of Fear Culture
At its core, the system has three simple objectives:
- Keep us divided — so we cannot share or learn from each other.
- Keep us afraid — so we spend, consume, and obey.
- Keep us emotional — so we react instead of thinking critically.
It is simple. It is brilliant. And it is insidious.
How to Break Free
- Be aware. Awareness itself loosens the grip of fear. Notice when headlines, posts, or conversations are designed to trigger you.
- Discern. Ask: Is this how I truly feel? Or how they want me to feel?
- Reclaim your sovereignty. Choose compassion over outrage. Choose presence over reaction. Remember: you are a soul first, having a human experience.
Choosing Freedom
Fear is a powerful tool, but it only works if we agree to play the game. When we refuse to divide, when we ground ourselves in compassion, when we cut the puppet strings, we reclaim our sovereignty.
We are not broken. We are not divided. We are not controlled.
We are sovereign beings, here to learn, grow, and love. And the moment we remember that, fear loses its power.