Fear of Death Wins Minds and Votes, Study Finds (Terror Warnings)

[NoBorders]

The fear mongering *really* works... How can this be neutralized?

REUTERS
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=1&u=/nm/campaign_fear_dc

SNIP
Talking about death can raise people's need for psychological security, the researchers report in studies to be published in the December issue of the journal Psychological Science and the September issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

"There are people all over who are claiming every time Bush is in trouble he generates fear by declaring an imminent threat," said Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, who worked on the study.

"We are saying this is psychologically useful."

When asked to think about television, the 100 or so volunteers did not approve of Bush or his policies in Iraq (news - web sites). But when asked to think about Sept. 11 first and then asked about their attitudes to Bush, another 100 volunteers had very different reactions. "They had a very strong approval of President Bush and his policy in Iraq," Solomon said.
SNIP

[leeman67]

1. well that sounds about right....

that is the Bush/Cheney campaign slogan: Vote For Us Or Die

[Tight_rope]

10. You hit it on the nail...And these same people would never go to Iraq

to fight for their fellow American's but they expect everyone else too.

[Cha]

2. I think our convention is addressing that very strongly!

It's called No Fear..Hope is on The WAy!

[Dover]

24. Kucinich: "COURAGE AMERICA! COURAGE!"..and he wasnt' talking

about courage to confront terrorism or Al Qaeda, but courage to do what it takes to oust this dangerous and corrupt bunch of nutcases who have hijacked this country. And courage to get this country back on its feet. And courage to face our fears.

[tom_paine]

3. Which is why LIHOP #2: San Francisco is scheduled

More Saudi intelligence agents are on the way, or probably here.

[libhill]

6. Make that MIHOP # 2

And I'll buy it.

[Junkdrawer]

7. Did you see this? --> FBI Issues Terror Warning (California)

Information Is Considered Unsubstantiated And Uncorroborated

Jul 29, 2004 1:49 pm US/Eastern
WASHINGTON (AP) The FBI warned police in California and New Mexico that it received information about possible terrorist activity in their states. However, the warning wasn't specific about particular targets or a method of attack, a federal law enforcement official said Thursday.

The FBI decided to pass along the threat information but warned that it was considered unsubstantiated and uncorroborated, said the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.

The vague warning was distributed to authorities in California, New Mexico and some other Western states the official did not identify.

more...

http://kdka.com/topstories/topstories_story_211135302.html

[daleo]

9. This goes along with the ricin in the babyfood yesterday,

And the Florida port shut down.

[NoBorders]

11. terror warnings in blue states only

so now we'll have state-by-state terror warnings, which will coincidentally occur only in blue states.

[tom_paine]

14. Bingo.

[ElementaryPenguin]

23. Yikes! Bushler making his Calif. move?

:puke:

[tridim]

4. Here's a way to neutralize it

Kerry should bring this study to light and condemn Bush for using it's findings to attract voters. Simple! Of course he'll have to repeat it about 50 times before the TV media reports it.

[libhill]

5. Dumb ass voters-

Let them worry about 9/11 3 or 4 years up the road, when the repukes have 'em working a zillion hours a week with no overtime, and gas prices hit three or four dollars a gallon to benefit Big Oil, and they have to suffer in silence with any ailment because they don't have health insurance. The Republicans are out for the rich, and they don't give a rats ass about working class people. Period. End of story. All the rhetoric about "God Bless America" and "Praise the Lord" won't put food on the table. Idiots.

[daleo]

8. Ask them to think about death in Iraq (and the draft) first

That will get them thinking along a different track.

[undergroundpanther]

12. Teach people

To understand we all will die. People to explore what death is or is not for themselves instead of running away from it or forcing it to be denied until the last moments or when an accident or tragedy intrudes.Different"primitive" cultures tried to cope with death and they had rituals for death even while alive and they tried to psychologically understand it so it was not so threatening to them..
We as a society need to reduce emotional traumas ,abuse,rape,and bulling in our homes schools and workplaces,we need to develop integrity and respect of self and other so there is less competition for place and peace.
Teach people early on that having a sense of integrity and genuineness is more important than survival of the fittest.

People love a war hero,
Kerry risked his life to save a guy in a river,in Vietnam.
For him that moment,his integrity was more important than his survival
Show people that all people are capable of acting with integrity.

It's only when a climate of bullying takes hold that teaches integrity does not matter that survival of the fittest supersedes the eternal part of us,the heart/soul.
Bush ran away,from every challenge life threw at him. So his self survival outweighs his need for integrity. He's never had to cultivate integrity because his life was given to him so he really does not know the value of integrity.
Part of having integrity means you put ego,your own benefits,your own survival and wants aside for something bigger than you,yourself.You are guided by your heart and a sense of empathy instead of fear,punishment/rewards or want.
Bush admin policy record reflects a rampant survival mentality,callous selfish want of survival,it has no heart, no ethics or wisdom,no foresight or empathy,it's all image and spin,it is polices are of self serving domination and theft of others. Bush's policies treat the public like a sociopath starving criminal would,They are gunning down people with law,People who have what he wants because he has power he thinks he can take..He'd rather destroy rather than cooperate and share the wealth because he is only in this for his own survival. He wants it all ,he wants to win and he does not care how he gets it as long as he has got it.This is NOT behavior fit for leadership .The bully hearted personality will not tolerate the possibility of being denied or rejected for it's selfishness He will not be denied of what he wants so he crushes the other and takes from them because he thinks he can get away with it.He is in a mindset of selfish survival at any cost.The corporate competitive model of sociopath non-relation relationships built of lies he tells himself and lives through.

So fear is very important to all bullies.Fear is how they maintain hegemony and their strong man image.

Because Bush knows the man who claws himself on top of all the others gets all the perks and power because our culture is hierarchical and hasn't grown up emotionally
Bush knows he has the best chance of survival,as long as all the others below him do not ever get to know his heart and ethics enough to turn on him for threatening their survival.
But we are beginning to see and turn on him.He's losing it because he knows we will expose his thievery and brutality and show him he is NOT a good person.So he is imploding.The image of himself in his head does not square with the reality of what he has done to us.
So he uses fear to scare us away from looking into his ethics seeing he is a betrayer of the public trust and a corrupter and misuser of power and treating him accordingly.
the fear mongering reflects his state of ethics, his own survival at any cost.
And the fact that many American share his'values' shows not only how effective fear is but how badly we have lost our integrity as a nation by letting Bush lead us and to get ahead by imitating his lack of personal morality and his bully heart.

[smirkymonkey]

21. Great post!

I think you have explained the phenomenon very well.

[NoBorders]

13. major irony - yahoo stories juxtaposed...

Copied from Yahoo news, stories in this order. Maybe this will opens some eyes.

1. FBI Issues Terror Warning for Calif., N.M.
AP - 45 minutes ago
The FBI warned police in California and New Mexico that it received information about possible terrorist activity in their states. However, the warning wasn't specific about particular targets or a method of attack, a federal law enforcement official said Thursday. Full Coverage
Sent: 135 times


2. Fear of Death Wins Minds and Votes, Study Finds
Reuters - Thu Jul 29,11:13 AM ET
President Bush may be tapping into solid human psychology when he invokes the Sept. 11 attacks while campaigning for the next election, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

[Poiuyt]

15. There has always been an association between * and death

Texas executions, needless wars to boost his political power, etc. He loves to watch people die.

[54anickel]

16. Related article

Wonder if Rove is using their last book as a model?

http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/spew4th.pl?ascribeid=20040728.133928&time=14%2002%20PDT&year=2004&public=1

The results of the study fueled more research. University of Arizona graduate student and lead author Mark Landau (a 1999 Skidmore College graduate) and Solomon, with colleagues from around the country, generated four studies that examined how reminders of death specifically influence evaluations of President Bush. Those results are due to be published this September in Personality and Social Science Bulletin. In those studies, reminders of death or the events of 9/11 dramatically increased support for President Bush and his policies regarding terrorists and Iraq.

Said Solomon, "The original impetus for this research was to study how people's political preferences change as a function of their psychological state. I am reminded of Freud's notion that we need to make conscious the unconscious. Our research shows that unconscious thoughts of death can have a great effect on people's political choices."

What can voters do to ensure that they make choices in a rational way, based on political qualifications and the positions of the candidates? They may need to monitor efforts by candidates to capitalize on fear-mongering and make a greater effort to vote with their heads, rather than with their hearts, and be aware of how concerns about death affect human behavior.

Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski are the originators of Terror Management Theory, which helps explain why humans react the way that they do to the threat of death, and how this reaction influences their post-threat cognition and emotion. The trio also wrote "In the Wake of 9/11 - The Psychology of Terror" (2002, American Psychological Association) in which they used terror management theory to analyze the roots of terrorism and American reactions to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

[wtmusic]

17. Hope they didn't spend too much for the study

I'll tell them the same thing for half price

[NoBorders]

18. certainly Rove already knew this -eom

[Tracer]

19. I don't think that people have a very good grip on probabilities.

The same people who worry themselves sick over a possible terrorist attack, jump into their car every day not caring a whit that 45,000 people die in car accidents every year in this country.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

20. Kick. This is exactly why I quit a band that mentioned 9/11 every show.

I watched the audience reaction and it was Pavlovian during the intro to 'America the Beautiful.'

I sent the band this article.

[Cha]

22. Good for You! It sure is nice to be among the not

intimidated by these Goons. I just wonder how anyone could be?

[JDPriestly]

25. Hitler and Japan tried to scare Americans.

It didn't work thanks to FDR, who reminded us that fear is the only thing we need to fear.

By the way, if the American people are so deeply religious, why are they so afraid of death? Don't they believe God will send them to heaven since they are such good Christians?

[devinsgram]

26. How do you think organized religion

keeps their flocks under control. Fear. Fear of death is the biggest human emotion to keep people in their places and they know it. :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

[sweetladybug]

27. This sounds about right. Bush and his crime family have been

playing mind games with people since he 1st starting running for president in 2000. They are the devil's right hand men
ELECT KERRY/EDWARDS 2004

[progressivebydesign]

28. Now does anyone still wonder WHY BushCo spends MILLIONS on psyc ops?

They're not stupid, they're evil. Don't you think THEY know every detail of psychological warfare, as it relates to campaigns? This admin. has spent uprecedented amounts of money on PR, and psyc ops.

[54anickel]

29. kick

[struggle4progress]

32. and back to the top once more

:kick:

[sandraj]

30. This may have had some truth two or three years ago

But I have a hard time believing that anyone takes those terror alerts seriously anymore.

Fear can be a psychologically useful tool, but when the person (or people) wielding it have proven themselves over and over to be bunglers, liars and manipulators, it loses its effect.

[54anickel]

31. The alerts are now simply the bell. The conditioning of Pavlov's dog

was completed long ago.

"DING" run to the comforting bosom of Shrubco for that warm, fuzzy, safe, superior and patriotic feeling.

[Murdock]

33. With the Latest terror warnings coming out..

This thread deserves a Kick..

:kick: