Well, it's over. For now.

What we witnessed in this 2024 election was a master class in voter manipulation. I often wonder how they do it. How they can produce an almost cult like following for two of the most flawed politicians in recent memory. How is it that so many voters can be lead by their noses to the voting booth in a fevered pitch of anxiety?

In my opinion it is done by instilling fear in the minds of the voters. Fear of the other, fear of what the opposition party may have in store if elected, fear of civil war, riots, detention camps. Fear, fear, fear. It was a constant barrage of fear, to make one yearn for a savior that will lead one to the electoral promised land.

Fear is the arrow, and the media is the bow. Those that benefit from our fear are the archers and our minds are the target.

If so, then why does fear work so well on so many people?

Wow! Can you believe the fear that's being ginned up in this election? Sure, fear is a big factor in every election but this one is over the top. Who, that are old enough to have lived through it, can forget the nuclear blast ad from the 1964 election. That visual may not be aired this election cycle, but it sure is implied.

Fear is the tool of the powerful, and those that covet power.

It resides in the amygdala, also known as the lizard brain. As a primal emotion its function is fight or flight, or to put it another way, a preservation device.

Fear has been used by the powerful probably since the advent of social cohesion, the main advantage of humans living in groups is safety, the prime motivation after food and water.

The fear today is palpable. From all political sides of the power spectrum. Civil war, nuclear war, violent riots, financial ruin, martial law, cancel culture, prison for misinformation, on and on. We are inundated with that which tickles the lizard brain. Have you noticed that folks are being lead around by their noses?

Attribution: Triune Brain, Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes I'm amazed at how the world just keeps rolling along.

I remember first learning about the end of the world. It was in the early 60s. Nuclear war was imminent. A president was killed in broad daylight for all the world to watch. There was a jungle war to prevent those damn dominoes from falling. "This is the end" filled the radio airwaves.

The Weekly Reader. Remember that? There was a heap of gloom and doom for a little boy to absorb. That's where I first heard about climate change, it was, back then, supposed to be the start of a new ice age. I also learned about the problem of finite cheap energy in the form of oil and what may happen when we run out. There was also whispers of global famine and other fear inducing articles.

Books and movies about dystopias and disasters and destruction made me think about survival. I thought about how I may survive certain catastrophes. I bet most of us have. We've all been taught to fear from a very early age, "Don't touch that hot stove"! "Don't look at the sun"! "Don't pet that bear"! Fear is needed to keep us alive. To a certain extent.

Courage comes in many forms. I believe it is inherent in all of us. Fear is the great inhibitor that may push it to the side or the catalyst that may bring it front and center. It may lay dormant, sometimes forever suppressed or it may ooze from every pore. Some may bluster about their courage only to fold under duress, some may be as timid as a mouse but rise as a lion in the face of adversity. Courage is an attribute that may manifest itself in ways that are totally surprising to the individual.

I guess this shouldn't surprise me, but it's still disturbing.

US President Donald Trump has warned that his policies will be "violently" overturned if the Democrats win November's mid-term elections.

He told Evangelical leaders that the vote was a "referendum" on freedom of speech and religion, and that these were threatened by "violent people".

The House Freedom Caucus of the U.S. Congress has built a reputation for bullheaded pursuit of far-right policy, but not for pursuit of freedom, as its name would indicate. It has pushed federal government shutdown, caused the speaker of the House to quit, and scuttled the Republican bill to cut health care for not cutting enough. But, measured against the four freedoms once set down by President Franklin Roosevelt, the caucus seems more in pursuit of serfdom than freedom.

In his "Four Freedoms" speech, given eleven months before the nation's entry into World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt set down a standard of freedom:

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want – which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear – which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.

Let's see how the caucus measures up to those four essential human freedoms.

These would be searches of various electronic items in spy and terrorism cases.

WaPo source