When studying the evolution of societies, historians, economists, sociologists, political scientists and geopoliticians too often reason as if all human decisions were taken on the basis of explicit interests, such as profit, ambition, honor or a taste for power. They forget another essential parameter: fear – the fear of losing one’s home, one’s job, one’s social status, one’s freedom, one’s life.
Escaping the reign of fear is, in fact, the great driving force of history: we thought we were escaping the fear of death through religion and the fear of misery through work, both of which are, in a way, illusions. Many brave women have been raped by cowardly men; many daring resistance fighters have been tortured and murdered by anonymous policemen; many indomitable families have been unable to avoid starvation and looting; many heroic people have been betrayed by cowards. In the face of fear, courage is the exception; cowardice is the rule. And all the powerful, in all times, have used fear to consolidate their power, to the great misfortune of the people.
A large part of Western political philosophy was then built up, very gradually, with the aim of giving political power a legitimacy other than fear, and deducing an institutional architecture enabling them to be respected without terrifying.
The Greeks were already worried about public figures using fear to transform the city into a dictatorship; Aristotle, following Plato, denounced fear as the main cement of tyranny; and among the Romans, Seneca reminded us that fear was the main weapon of despots. The Hebrew prophets denounced kings who ruled through fear, and encouraged the people to revolt. “Do not be afraid” is the phrase most often repeated in the Gospels, and Augustine asserts that a power based on fear can only lead away from the “City of God”.
After others, such as Jean Bodin, Hobbes called for stable laws against arbitrariness; Locke and Montesquieu proclaimed that the only regime not based on fear was democracy, with its complex tangle of powers, which protects the three natural rights (property, liberty, security), and recognizes the right to resist any tyrant. Rousseau added to this the need to reduce inequalities, and to organize the active participation of citizens in public life, so that the powerful could not use the fear of lack and exclusion to install a dictatorship.
At the same time, the founding fathers of American democracy were obsessed by the risk of fear ruling their young nation, just as it had ruled the British colonies. Madison advocated federalism, separation of powers and plurality of factions; Thomas Jefferson added the need for universal education, absolute freedom of expression and the right to revolt against oppressive power.
Since then, to escape government by fear, all the world’s democracies have implemented the rule of law, separation of powers, education for all, freedom of debate, and control of rulers and public security agents.
Today, however, more than half of all human beings still live under the reign of fear, if not terror. And those who live in democracies are still afraid of losing their jobs, of falling into poverty, of living in solitude.
Today, there are at least three new fears: climate change, drug trafficking and terrorism, most of it Islamic. These three new threats can tip democracies into dictatorship.
To combat the threat of climate change, we need the courage to recognize it and act. We’re a long way from that. And if we don’t act until it’s too late, the time will come when we won’t be able to escape the need to take authoritarian decisions: not being afraid soon enough and reacting democratically will lead to dictatorship.
To combat corruption, drug trafficking and terrorism – most of it Islamist – democracies are beginning to realize that they need a much stronger state, a powerful public prosecutor’s office specialized in organized crime, extremely severe penalties, highly professional and politically protected police institutions, highly effective systems for monitoring radicalized individuals, sophisticated infiltration devices, intensive digital surveillance, strong cooperation between police and secret services and strict border controls. To achieve this, some would be prepared to throw democracy overboard: believing they were fighting fear, they were installing dictatorship.
To protect the peace of mind of citizens without becoming liberticide, we must also and above all fight against the roots of these new fears. This will require demanding social integration, rigorous secularism, the rejection of all lawless zones, a credible and stable rule of law, independent judicial institutions, powerful institutional and private checks and balances; a culture of civil vigilance, zero tolerance of corruption and fundamentalism, freedom of the press, the courage to say no to those who intimidate, support for teachers and all those – judges, journalists and lawyers – who are on the front line in this fight; acceptance of differences when they do not claim to impose themselves as a new norm. And last but not least, constant monitoring of all those who, from near or far, wield an ounce of power – especially power over women.
Between the threat of an over-powerful state and that of terrorists and drug traffickers, we have to choose. Without losing your soul.
Image: The scream, Edvard Munch