It's the classic insurance salesman pitch. "Follow me and I'll make sure -this- never happens to you!" Of course it makes sense - a good politician knows that FEAR is one of the basic innate emotions that generates the strongest response - summarized as "fight or flight" - and in many cases can be irrational or uncontrollable. In this way, an insurance agent is always able to increase their base immediately after a disaster, and a politician is able to change the mind of voters who would otherwise not pay attention or follow a competitor. How does one use FEAR to gather followers? The most straightforward way of course is to promise that this will never happen again...which is highly unlikely and therefore only captures those who are irrationally afraid or anxious. The second, and more devious approach is to turn FEAR into a contrasting emotion - ANGER. "Of course, this only happened because so-and-so did this-and-that." It is easier to attack than defend, and so the one who attacks first will have the upper hand, and now you have the FEAR of your followers replaced with a healthy dose of ANGER to help you out. Once a leader has ANGER involved, it is a short hop to hatred and division (us vs. them) - and then your support to fight back. Quoting my favorite fiction philosopher - "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." Now, none of this actually leads to a real solution - one in which we improve our situation and ensure the tragedy doesn't happen again. For this to happen, derivative emotions (feelings) must be invoked. Why? Because while emotions are a physiological response, one which we cannot control, feelings instead are the cognitive response to an emotion. Because they require you to think about your response, these typically produce more well thought out and intelligent results. And, they are harder to involuntarily invoke or manipulate. Specifically those feelings which are tertiary to FEAR and ANGER - Remorse and Disapproval, followed by Love and Optimism, are those that we should be following in our response to a tragedy. So I challenge you to ask yourself - has someone used your emotions to support their cause? Are you on the path to the dark side? Or have you been able to shut out the salesman and take the path of a Christian - one in which you feel remorse and disapproval, but are reassured in love and optimism - which leads to a solution in peace?
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On a MissionTwo passionate parents and their four children are excited to bring His Word to everyone in need while living a life of Gospel poverty as missionaries. They invite you to join them on a journey to encounter our global neighbors that Jesus commands us to love through works of charity and service. Archives
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