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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
