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Joe Sampson
Lundstrom Period: 6
Honors English Language Arts
1/14/16
Fear Is never the Answer
There are too many ways fear can and is abused. The use of fear to control and drive
citizens collective behavior is wrong and morally unethical. Sadly we see it all the time. Fear
being used within government is a big way that fear can be abused. Thomas Jefferson once said
When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there
is tyranny. - ( Thomas Jefferson ) This quote makes perfect sense. It is truly how tyranny works.
A perfect government should not have its people fearing it. Tyrants are abusers of fear and should
not use fear as a tactic to gain power because that is what makes them a tyrant in the first place.
Fear needs to be used less often to control and govern society. No one should be afraid of
anyone.
There are many better ways to accomplish things than by trying to impose fear to
motivate. Have you ever wondered what motivates people to get up and go to work everyday or
what makes people satisfied with what they do? According to an article off of Inc.com titled
The Deepest source of Motivation what people are motivated by is not by fear of no income or
fear of financial loss but by a desire to help other people. This article states
The lesson here is simple: when you focus on helping others rather than helping
yourself, you draw upon your deepest sources of motivation. It frees your creativity and
energy while developing simultaneously developing both empathy and patience. It's not a

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dog-eat-dog world out there. It's a "let's make this happen together" world. - ( Geoffrey
James )
So fear is not what should or does motivate people to do things. It is the sheer want to help other
people on a daily basis that gets people motivated.
The internet definition of fear is as follows an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief
that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. - ( Google ) Which is
an all negative definition. Fear has no positive connotation behind the worde. Also some of the
synonyms for fear are horror, panic, dread, dismay, and distress. There isn't anything positive
that comes out of fear and that is one of the reasons why fear isn't the most effective way to
control people. Fear causes all of these negative emotions and in turn when it is used to control
people it fails to make everyone satisfied which can lead to people who may not want to be
afraid anymore. That is why fear is ineffective on a governmental standpoint because people will
eventually disagree and in some cases rebel. For example when The United States was just 13
British colonies and the American people were being ruled by fear of punishment through the
law. At first things were ok where they were at but when Great Britain tried to tighten its grip on
the American people they didn't want to have to fear anymore and so they rebelled. So fear can
be effective but of course it is not perfect and there are better ways to positively get things done
and have less of an issue with fear.
Some may argue that religion is a big example of how fear can be used to control and
motivate people into action. The fear that if a person isn't living righteously that he/she will go to
hell for all time and eternity. Although for some people that may be a motivation for religion a
greater reason people are motivated to stay faithful in their religion is because many people look
for religion to add purpose to their lives and to help them understand lifes hard questions. The

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reason that I am motivated and active with my religious affiliations is because I want a sense of
purpose in my life. I want to know the reason why i am here on this earth. I want to be happy and
I want to know for myself how I should live my life. If I went to church because I was afraid that
if I didn't i would go to hell then I probably wouldn't go to church at all. Fear should not be used
in religion to control what people think.
Fear can be used to control within sports as well. In a coaching position fear can be an
asset to help motivate a team to do what is expected of them and to show who is boss so to
speak. I have personally had swim coaches that have ruled by fear and some that have not. The
kind of fear that if you messed up somewhere along the line there would be pushups involved. It
is an effective way to coach. I remember that I would push myself to try and make it so that i
wouldn't be the one doing pushups on the sidelines. I found that there were results that came out
of the hard work that i did. But when I had the coaches that were encouraging, kind, treated
everyone with respect, and cared about everyone personally then I found it much better overall.
Instead of a coach that is constantly breathing on your neck I would rather have the coach that
would be constantly telling me that I can do hard things, that I can go faster, setting goals for me
personally, and willing to listen to me when I wanted him/her to.Look, coaching is about human
interaction and trying to know your players. Any coach would tell you that. I'm no different. ( Bill Parcells ) As Bill said coaching isn't about pushing people to the limit but about human
interaction. When I would have a coach that coached by interacting with me I would be
motivated to swim fast not only so that I wouldn't get punished but so that I could try and
impress my coach and show them that I am willing to do the work. With that kind of coach there
was more improvement because I wanted it for myself. The coach that rules out of fear is not as
good as the coach that cares.

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With parenting fear should not be used. When you rule with Iron Fist as a parent it can
be good and bad.When you lay down the law as a parent it teaches discipline and shows the child
that you are in charge. Although discipline is good it is not good to have a child fear you or not
want to be around you because they don't feel safe or comfortable around you. As a parent you
want to be the type of adult that your kids can trust and that they will want to come to in times of
need. Although if your kids are afraid of you the likeliness that they will want to come to you
when they need it is lower than if you were a parent that had a balance of fear and forgiveness.
At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child's success is the positive
involvement of parents. - ( Jane D Hull ) As that quote says positive involvement is the best
way a child can succeed not having a sense of fear. Parents also need a certain amount of trust
when it comes to kids as well. If fear is an issue than how will the child be able to trust his/her
parents if they are afraid of them. When I was a kid there were times where I would be very
scared to tell my parents the truth out of the fear of being ridiculed or punished. Even to this day
it's hard to tell my parents everything out of that fear of being punished. But my parents were
smart enough to know that they shouldn't be too harsh and so it all worked out. Fear within
parenting is necessary but there shouldn't be too much of it. I'm not saying that there should be
no discipline between parents and children i'm saying that fear should not exist in that
relationship.
Teaching is in a lot of ways the same as the coaching idea. We all have had a teacher that
we thought was scary or that we were afraid of. In turn i'm sure that there was some hard
feelings. Teaching is not an easy thing to do. But fear should not take place within a classroom.
To have a child fear an adult that should be trustworthy can be an issue. If the child is afraid of
the teacher then how will the child be able to commune with the teacher if needs be. This is

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especially true with elementary school kids. Being a shy kid that is afraid to talk to the teacher
when he/she needs to causes trust issues with not only the teachers but with many adults. Now on
the other hand to have a teacher that is kind and willing to work with the student and not a abuser
of fear would be a much better situation for both the teacher and the student.A good teacher can
inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning. - ( Brad Henry ) Children
should have a love of learning not a fear of failure.
To wrap it all up. The use of fear in our world has its pros and cons. There needs to be
limits to fear in every aspect it used. Fear is a powerful agent and needs to be taken seriously.
Fear can be useful and can be harmful. There are too many ways fear can and is abused. The use
of fear to control and drive citizens collective behavior is wrong and morally unethical. The use
of fear to control is unnecessary.

Works Cited
Book Source
Henry VIII, King, comp. The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated
out of the Original Tongues and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared & Revised :

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Commonly Known as the Authorized (King James) Version. 1st ed. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, PA:
National Bible, 1975. 1900. Print.
Newspaper Article
"The Deepest Source of Motivation." Inc.com. Inc.com, 8 Apr. 2013. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
<http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/the-deepest-source-of-motivation.html>.
Magazine Article
Loggins, Michael. "Fear Itself. (Inventory)." Harper's Magazine1 June 2003: 1. Print.