Throughout history, those who would claim and hold absolute power had at hand a weapon far more powerful than any that human artifice has been able to conceive: that weapon is (and has always been) fear.
No consequence carries the same impact as the threat of that consequence.
The power of fear as a weapon lies rooted in the fundamental human instincts: self-preservation and the pleasure principle (seek pleasure, avoid pain).
The effectiveness of fear lies, not in the pain that it inflicts (generally, that's non-existent), but in the victim's sense that his or her personal security has been compromised.
In Maslow's hierarchy, the need for security is just one step away from the need for physical sustenance.
Take, for example, one of President Franklin Roosevelt's most famous and most often-quoted 'Fireside Chat' remarks: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
" Even the attack on Pearl Harbor - an actual event, and not a threat - left the United States shaken, but still confident.
Ironically, once the Second World War had ended, the country was almost immediately plunged into a frenzy of fear, stoked handily by the Republican Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy.
'Duck and cover' pervaded our elementary schools not because of a Communist attack, but because of the fear of such.
In the name of national security, the civil rights of countless innocent people in many walks of life (especially the media) were violated.
How many examples do I need to bring out on stage to prove my point? The fear engendered by 'the Jewish Question' in Nazi Germany? The 'domino theory' in Southeast Asia? 'Women's libbers'? The 'homosexual agenda'? Now, consider this: what is the operative principle in order for torture to be effective? Certainly, part of it is actual physical abuse.
However, that's not torture at its most powerful.
The prisoners at Abu Ghraib, made famous in those world-shaking photographs from a few years ago, were being subjected to degradation and, of course, fear.
I wonder if there's been any political group in the so-called 'free world' more adept at wielding the sword of fear than the current US administration.
At least since September 11, 2001, the 'War on Terror' has proved to be a tool most effectively employed for population control.
I challenge you to compare the reaction of the United States to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the attacks on September 11.
Obviously, the perpetrators in the latter case were not an identifiable 'nation' or 'country' in the traditional sense.
But, aside from the interment camps so thoughtfully provided by the US government for its citizens of Japanese descent, we didn't have the extent of fear-mongering that we've experienced since the more recent attacks.
Additionally, fear makes such an effective weapon against a population because, by its nature, it tends to seep out into surrounding areas and grow by assimilation, something like an amoeba engulfing its prey.
So now, 'terrorism' is being used to talk about global warming, disastrous storms and the spread of AIDS and bird flu, among other subjects.
This topic was deeply explored by Frank Furedi in an essay called "The Market in Fear" in the September 26, 2005 edition of Spiked.
Even more tellingly, the current 'Entrepreneurs of Fear' (as Furedi calls them) have gone beyond even what Machiavelli (the poster-boy for the amoral exercise of power) would have permitted.
Anonymous internet fear-mongering has picked up the device of calumny to boost the power of of the weaponry of fear.
Danielle Allen, in an article entitled "Worse than Mud" in today's Washington Post, quoted the Machiavellian master when he wrote, "Whoever reads the history of [Florence], will see how many calumnies have been perpetrated in every time against those citizens who occupied themselves in its important affairs.
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Of the things that resulted there sprung up hate on every side, whence it came to divisions, from divisions to Factions (Sects), (and) from Factions to ruin.
" I think that it's about time someone stood up and very loudly repeated to the fear-mongers in the present administration as well as those in the media and particularly the anonymous sources that hide behind the facade of the Web to do their dirty work, the words spoken by attorney Joseph Welch to Senator McCarthy - the words that effectively ended McCarthy's career of demagoguery "Have you no sense of decency?"