When reading through these comments on fear and anxiety I can’t help but turn back to the When Fear Turns Graphic New York Times article which is, of course, all about manipulation of fear and anxiety. The article is an illustration of a master manipulator at work, whose detachment (nearing the degree of sociopath, it seemed, his family life being wrapped up in the cultural issues he picked apart) evidently rendered brutally successful results. Although our discussion of the article was limited in class, my take away was something along the lines of: fear is malleable in the right pair of hands, it can be shaped into beliefs and art is an effective means of doing the shaping, at least in Europe. Mr. Segert, the rationalist manipulator, demonstrates the great heights a realist, free from wishy-washy morality or, you know, humanity can reach. He is also a case study in how dangerous pure realism can be.

What nobody brought up in class, and what I am only thinking about right now, is the similarities between the fear building within the population in the article, and the fears of myself and my classmates. Fear seems to be the one thing our class has in common. Reading through the wiki only confirms this point. We are fearful that we won’t do well in our classes. We are fearful that our grades will not be good, or better or best. We are fearful we will not get summer jobs, or real jobs, or that the economy will continue to plummet and we will be left with mounting debt and a set of skills no one wants, needs or values any longer. Fear compounded by each failed piece of legislation and the value of the dollar and the value of the euro, the GDP, the State of the Union, television shows about hot young lawyers and whispers, from upperclassmen, about everything that is about to come next. It is a title wave of fear, and fears that are new to us, which make them all the more unsettling.

The point of the Graphic article, my take away, is that outside forces can shape fear. But there is a second take away, not directly addressed: the people of Switzerland (or at least those voting SPP) can, at any point, open their eyes and see they are being manipulated. They can see that fact and the only thing they need to change it is to simply get over their fear. Get over it. The same principal applies to us, and we have the added benefit of being new to this institution, and not saturated with generations of prejudice and misinformation about the state of affairs we face. But how do we get over it? Jerome Frank suggests lawyers (and judges, I think) approach each element of a case with a “scientific spirit” in order to flush out fact. I think that might be a good place to start.

-- AerinMiller - 04 Feb 2010