The abstract concept I have chosen for my paper is fear mongering. I wanted to write about something that interest me, and something that could actually help people with their lives. When the thought of fear mongering crossed my mind, I knew right away that was going to be my subject. Fear mongering is the use of fear to sway ones actions or opinions. The object of fear is always over exaggerated, and constantly drilled into the minds of the ones being swayed. I cannot turn on my television for five minutes without witnessing someone trying to change my mind about something through the usage of fear mongering. A prime example of this would be the nightly news. They use scare tactics just to get you to tune into their program. They always tell you the first half of a story, always leaving out descriptive details to leave you afraid, and curious. Then when you tune into the program you usually find that the story was nothing like they made it appear. On the other hand many people feel that news programs would never try to deceive us in any way, and that their every intention is only to inform the public, because we have a right to know.
Another example of the usage of fear mongering is by prescription drug companies. According to an Article in the Lexington Hearld Leader by Linda A. Johnson, for the first time in our nation’s history over half of our citizens who have health plans are on some sort of prescription medication. I will use specific examples of prescription advertisements to prove there usage of fear mongering. They typically start off with a “ Do you ever feel like you have” then they will go on to read a Long list of symptoms which half of them could be claimed by the common cold, and the other half of them sound completely just made up. Our nation is practically owned by drug companies, they are leading our nation in profit. I am sure that drug companies would never admit to their advertisements as being fear based. They want us to think that using their drugs are in our best interest. They sell uss overpriced, insufficiently tested drugs for their huge financial gain.
My 3rd point will be about Christianity. I personally (along with many others) believe that allot of Christianity uses fear to control the majority of America. Many of the stories in the bible are nothing but scare tactics used to teach us morals, and keep us tame. I personally do not feel that this is the right way to go about teaching people right from wrong. I am sure that just about every Christian will strongly disagree with what I am saying, but that is ok. I will have strong supporting evidence. I will try my best not to offend anyone, but I can make no promises due to the fact that religion is a very touchy subject. I feel that the basis for Christianity alone is a form of fear mongering. If you do wrong (sin) you get to burn in hell for all of eternity. I will discuss this in depth, and possibly another story from the bible as well.
The Last part of my body will discuss the usage of fear mongering by the U.S. government. This is the most transparent usage of the term fear mongering out of my 4 main points. Our government constantly uses fear mongering to maintain control of our citizens. They do this so often and so bluntly that it makes it hard for me to believe that their are still skeptics that claim they do not. I will discuss their usage of fear mongering after 9/11, to promote the war on Iraq. And I will discuss their usage of ear mongering on a day to day basis with a few strong examples. I am sure that any Bush supporter will strongly believe that what I have to say insane, due to the fact that we want to believe our government has us in their best interests rather then who they owe money to for their support. In many other countries the government fears the people because people are not afraid to speak out and rally for what they think is wrong. In America, our people fear the government.
Format for my Paper
- INTRODUCTION- what is fear mongering?
- Definition-
- the good and the bad
- 1st Main point- Fear mongering in the news/media
- the many ways fear is used to promote the news
- the many ways fear is used by the news to control our mindset
- why would they not want us to be informed of their fear based program?
- who will disagree with me and why?
- 2nd Main point- Fear Mongering as used by drug corporations
- Statistics on prescription drug usage in the U.S.
- How do they use fear mongering?
- Why?
- what should be done about it? what can I do?
- How is it covered up?>
- Why would they never admit to this accusation?>
- 3rd Main point-Fear mongering and our government
- McCarthyism
- 9/11
- Patriot act
- General mind control
- Conclusion- Summery of Main points
- End with impact
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