Fear mongering, defined as the action of deliberately arousing public fear or alarm about a certain issue, is a topic that is more than understood by our federal government. In today’s age of social media, instant news outlets and the internet’s drastic evolution, fear is more prevalent than ever among the American people. The fear of threats both domestic and foreign has quite literally been an anchor of American society for a least a century, and the government that calls itself the greatest in the world has done nothing but add to the general atmosphere of terror that resonates within the American people.

Now, when I say “fear,” I don’t mean constant mental anguish of the various aspects of our world, I am referring to the trepidation and stress placed upon us by the United States government with the sole purpose of controlling our society in its entirety.

In our democratic nation, by definition, the people hold and grant the government the power that they oh so righteously wield. But, in modern America, the government instills fear into its citizens in order to impose that power directly onto themselves and as a result, can abuse said power.

As Lord Acton so eloquently put, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Such fear mongering and corruption of power in order for the government to get their way is highlighted during the cold war of the 60’s. The US government proudly advocated against communism, the Soviets and everything involving what I will call, anti-democracy based views, and what is historically taught is that the citizens of such a great and powerful nation were completely on board, but not out of pride of our democracy and political system, rather on the basis of pure fear of the unknown.

This fear was, to put it plainly, unjust in most rights, then and now, not just in response to the Red Scare, but in regard to many socio-cultural fears of today’s America.

We allow the people sworn to manage our nation, protect the people’s rights and keep us safe to constantly inject fear into our society; we fear illegal immigrants, we fear nuclear war, we fear our own leaders and the choices they make on a regular basis, this is not how a country should operate.

We, as Americans, need to end this fear mongering behavior of our government officials, we need to speak out against the unjust terror instilled into ourselves, family, and peers, and we need to put a stop to the general cultural acceptance of such acts and regain this nation of the people, by the people and for the people.