Seite 125 [125]
Fear and securitisation | 123
Although some of our fears have proven to be universal and instinctive,
cultural influence is not a negligible factor, as our emotions may be different
in origin and appearance. The fear that we feel when an unknown figure
emerges from the dark is hard to compare to the feeling experienced when
we find out that a hazardous waste dump is being built near to our house, or
to what we might feel during violent police abuse.
Jeff Goodwin argues that some emotions are more constructed than others,
their formation involves more intense cognitive processes, and this is especially
true in the case of politically relevant emotions (Goodwin et al. 2001, 13).
The alarm caused by the sudden emergence of a shadow has little to do with
the cognitive dimension, but the fear of certain World Bank policies is all
the more so. Emotions associated with politics thus rest on moral intuitions,
individual and social obligations and rights, and expected consequences that
are historically and culturally determined.
For example, James M. Jasper argues that when fear does not function as
a basic emotion (reflex emotion, according to his typology), it has got some
kind of moral content. So, returning to our previous analogy, the alarm that
we feel when a car suddenly approaches us on the zebra crossing is a visceral
fear; however, climate anxiety is a much more complex emotional state with
a strong moral content (Jasper 2006).
Fear, therefore, has a dual nature. Its universality is indisputable, since it
is a general experience of mankind. At the same time, fear can be socially
constructed and determined by norms, values, and culture. As a result, it can
be shaped, intensified, and created, especially when we talk about politics.
FEAR AS A SOCIAL PHENOMENON
Fear has always played an important role in the development of civilisation
and culture (Hankiss 2006, 89), as culture provides us with some kind of
protection against our most basic fear, the fear of death. Fear of death does
not only appear when we are in imminent danger, but it is constantly lurking
within us, and in order to maintain our mental health, we must stifle it. In
the light of this, fundamental components of human life, such as aggression,
sexuality, and the desire for power, are interpreted primarily as cultural
projections of the desire for immortality (Becker 1973).
Through culture, the individual internalises a view that makes the world
stable and permanent, thus providing him/her some kind of immortality.
This is the reason why people organise themselves into communities and
form religious, ideological, national, and political identities (Pyszczynski et
al. 2002), since creating a positive self-image is a kind of survival mechanism
for them.
Emotions can be imagined as building blocks or ‘microfoundations’ on
which more complex social processes and outcomes rest (Jasper 2006). Fear is