The Spectator

Freedom from fear

Fear and hope are the two great motivators of human action

Fear and hope are the two great motivators of human action, and neither untempered by the other leads to wise decision-making. Paralysis by unreasonable fear is as much to be avoided as the foolhardiness induced by groundless hope; but, of the two, fear is the more easily generated. It is certainly more common nowadays than unbounded optimism.

How easily unfounded fear is provoked has been demonstrated this week by the appearance of a new disease in China of unknown causation. No sooner had nine people died of it, out of a global population of six billion, than the end of the world, or at least of humanity, was deemed in certain quarters to be nigh: and this despite the fact that the great majority of the people who have contracted the disease have survived it, not died from it.

Nothing is easier to conjure up from the unknowability of the future than panic. There is no difficulty in imagining the most terrible of consequences from the most banal of actions, let alone from genuinely dangerous ones. Certain minds take pleasure in predicting apocalypses, and the failure of the last predicted apocalypse to make its appearance at the duly appointed time never reduces the certainty with which the next apocalypse is envisioned.

Because the future is inherently unknowable, and because dramatic predictions are so much more vivid in our minds than undramatic ones, the Cassandras of the world enjoy a certain natural advantage, which has nothing to do with their accuracy or clairvoyance. A book predicting disaster will always sell more than one which predicts that the world will continue in its chronically unsatisfactory but nevertheless survivable way.

This should be borne in mind when the possible consequences of the war with Iraq are discussed.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in