Fear Versus Confidence - Essay Example

Fear versus Confidence is Emergence of a Modern Era) Introduction The issue of emergence has been in existence fora long time. Social classes started to emerge as a result of division of labour. Since the time of agricultural societies, job specialisation characterised how different people were valued depending on the kind of work they did. Nevertheless, in the modern era, class is characterised by the change of different roles people take in the society. With the emergence of technology and democratization, classes have taken different forms where class depends on a variety of issues as opposed to the earlier days where classes were confined to evaluation on the basis of a single sector of economy. As technology continues to evolve, education taking centre stage and democracy endorsed in every part of the world, the modern era denotes complex classes. This, as Cohen (2012) says has changed the way classes interact and the way the politics of any nation are shaped. Class does not only involve social position but also economic and political positions. People might move across the various social class divisions several times in their life time as consumption patterns and earnings change. Social class divisions dictate the kind of lifestyle an individual is to adopt. The emergence of two rival class; Bourgeoisie/upper and proletariat/lower in the modern era has resulted in social, economic and political differences in the society. The division into classes bears varying impact on the people’s way of life. For instance, people in the upper class feel more satisfied with life than those in the middle and lower classes. In fact, people in the upper classes are confident with life as they are wealthy and highly respected. In addition, they dominate the middle and lower classes in all sectors, that is, the upper class dominates the economic and political sectors of the society. On the contrary, people in the lower class division lead a life of fear as they are subordinate to the upper class. In fact, their influence is not felt in the social, economic and political arena. In the 1950s, education system was based on social class in England and most world nations. Children from the upper social class received the best education and never attended similar schools with children from the lower class division. Acquisition of better education by the upper class division, promote hygiene and reduce diseases. As a result, life expectancy increase and thus people in the upper class division become more confident with life. People from lower class division were considered uncivilized and barbaric and were to work as servants for the upper class. Due to lack of education by lower class people, hygiene levels remain low resulting to increased rate of disease and high mortality rate. High mortality rate and increased risk of diseases created fear of death in the lower class people. Acquisition of better education by individuals from upper class division has caused discrimination in the job market. Individuals from upper class division are favoured in the job market and their jobs are secure. Inversely, individuals from lower class are not assured of formal jobs. Additionally, their jobs are not secure. There is always fear of losing jobs. Job structure based on social class divisions usually has devastating impacts on the financial security of the individuals from lower class. Education has facilitated the advancement of technology. Technology has brought changes in various sectors which include communication, transport, business, science and others. Division of a nation or a community into classes fuels political turmoil. In fact, most civil conflicts are fuelled by ill relation between different class divisions. The attempts by the lower class population to resist control by the wealth upper class mostly results to conflict. Unfortunately, the people from the lower class suffer the adverse consequence of war. Their weak militarily and economic power hamper their success in war. For instance, the world wars drastically drained the resources of the poor nations. This as Wilson and Justus (2012) say is a major factor in shaping the socio-political environment. The sophisticated weapons used by the wealthy nations caused mass destruction of the weaker nations such as Japan. The wars escalated the fear of death among residents of the poor nation. Additionally, the wars caused the infamous great economic depression which escalated the fear for loss of life especially in the third world nations. Additionally, the great depression also strained the world economic powers like America. For instance, America was left with insufficient capital to run her affairs. However, this served as a lesson to prevent future economic disorders. Presently, the American government has developed staunch mechanisms to avoid the mistakes made in that time. Many of people lost their lives and others were left homeless. On the contrary, war victors develop confidence in their armies and economic might. For instance, America became more confident with her army after winning the Second World War. From the end of WWII, the world has sustained a period of stability. However, the current rearmament process adopted by various world nations such as South Korea and Russia has created fear for eruption of another catastrophic war. The upper class communities/countries control both the means of production and the political affairs (Hoffman, 2012). Major economic and political deliberations are made by the upper class. The middle and lower class have neither political nor economic control and are thus expected to go by what the upper class dictates. The economy of a country is usually dominated by the upper class, that is, people who are economically stable and have a great influence on the political arena. The upper class nations dominate the world economy and are believed to be strong. Fear has been identified to be one of the greatest motivators that a human being can have. It can inspire both good and bad things; it can push people to do either good or bad things or positive actions too. As Gibson (2003) says, history of the world is seen to have been forged by the mighty power of fear. Both good and bad things have been developed in the response to the various fears and anxieties that individuals and societies as a whole have. Confidence has also been in the centre of making the history of the world. In fact, it can be argued that confidence had the following factors; Inspired the civilization of society; Confidence with regard to human relations has always been at the centre of the human civilizations. It is confident men who took bold stepped and dared to go do things that had not been done before. Confident Romans conquered the world because they were bold enough to go past the borders of their villages and see what the rest of the world was like. They went to the farthest places from their homes, and there they planted their flags and called these their territories. Confident people gave the modern civilization all the goods of the modern civilization such as cars, ships, aeroplanes etc. On the other hand, those communities which did not have confident people were left behind, only to be subjected to the ruling power. This can be best evidenced in the case of the ancient Roman Empire. The Roman people were confident enough to dare what had not been dared before. Due to this, they were able to conquer other nations and subject them to themselves through fear. Rome rules by the administration of fear. The empire administered some of the most severe and inhumane punishment to those who dared to challenge the authorities. This was done without regard of one’s nationality. Even Romans were scared of challenging the rulers of the time because they could be subjected to the same punishments. Looking at how fear has affected the modern world, especially the relations between countries, here are a number of factors and issues that have graced the last few decades as global societies have grown; Currency wars In 2012, currency wars between the United States and China took the centre stage in the world political arena. The currency wars between the countries have been seen as the evidence for mistrusts that exists between the two nations. Fear is a product of mistrust and uncertainty. When a party does not trust another party, and is uncertain about what will happen, they are likely to increase their fear (Wilson & Justus, 2012). The economy has become the new battle field between many countries. Unlike in the previous century and those preceding it, nations in the 21st century understand that they can gain superiority by having the most powerful and the dominant economic system. This creates fears about entities ad they do not trust each other with what the other party would do if they were to be the most powerful. The United States may not trust china with regard to how it would conduct itself upon getting a world class economy. China on the other side does not trust the United States. This mistrusting atmosphere, needless to say is definitely a good breeding ground for fear. This fear then inspires the actions in one party, that inspires even more fear in the rival party and the loop is then continuous. Net wars The other issue that has graced the informal world politics is the issue of internet attacks across international borders. Nations such as Pakistan, North Korea and China have been said to be deliberately attacking other counties’ computer networks through the internet. In fact, it is believed that this kinds of ways may be the kinds of ways between nations and it is even believed that in fear of future attacks from outside, some countries are secretly training internet hackers who can protect their networks and who would also be used as the virtual military if such networks were to erupt between countries. As can be evidenced in this scenario too, fear as an emotion is borne of mistrust and uncertainty. Mixing mistrust and uncertainty can conjure some of the most fearsome attitudes by individuals or group of people. War on terror The USA has been fighting the issue of terrorism for some decades now. For most people who were born in the recent years, the war on terrorism by the West may look like it was always something that has always been there. It is good to note that as recent as in the 1970s, terrorism was not an issue in the world political arena. Looking at the birth of terrorism and the resulting war against terrorism may indicate the correlation between fear and mistrust and certainty (Gibson, 2003). War on weapons of mass destruction There is an ongoing war on weapons of mass destruction. In fact this war is part of war on terrorism (Popov, 2003). The countries such as North Korea which have been in the top list of risky countries with weapons of mass destruction have cited that they have a right to protect themselves. These countries fear that since the United States has these weapons, they may use them to dominate them. This leads to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Confidence How is confidence related to fear? Of course, fear is the lack of confidence. Yet, confidence is not the absence of fear. It is the ability to face the fears. Modern societies and individuals seem to use various ways to master their fear and face it with time. Whether it is whole states, local communities within a state or even individuals, people forge ways in which to face their fears and increase their confidence. This can be witnessed in the manner in which nations, countries and even individual are dealing with many social situations every day. People, when faced with fear, or a fear-inspiring situation, want to protect themselves so that they know that they are not in a vulnerable position. Fear and confidence is a relationship issue where parties in a relationship have unbalanced powers. Those with more power in the relationship will definitely feel more confidence and those without the power will experience less confidence, thereby leading to them seeking for better ways to increase confidence. The ones in power try to maintain the power by all means. These factors may lead to tensions between the two opposing classes or groups and this leads to more fear. The modern society is faced by a greater need for competition of resources. Competition is on a greater scale than ever before. At the same time, unlike in historic days when people used to live in ever smaller groups, today’s communities are bigger, well connected and demand even more resources. Demand for resources is in global scale unlike in the days before (Wellia, 2012). This has increased the competition between people of different races as well as different classes. The poorer people are concerned with the fact that they have uncertain future ahead of them and they in most cases blame the younger generations for this kind of misfortune. As a result, they feel that they their main enemy is the rich people who they believe live off their fortune (Cohen, 2012). Life for poor people is always riddled with misfortune and uncertainty which makes them feel afraid, they don’t know when the government will come up with some new policy which will affect them negatively, when the process of common commodities will be increases and how things will turn in the future. This uncertain environment makes them to be fearful and anxious about the future. They lack confidence about what will happen in the future. They do not feel that the government can protect them, and they therefore just feel that they are always at risk of having their lives ruined. As a result, the tensions that continue to rise between the higher classes and the lower classes will always erupt at some point thus bringing some issues. This can be evidenced in many parts of the world today. Conclusion Fear and confidence seems to have some common ground in the way they affect the relationships between various parties. Fear increases tensions between two parties where the relationship is based on an unbalanced power relationship. In the modern world, this is going to be the foundation of many political relations especially between countries and nations. This can be evidenced by the many negative relationships between the various states such as Palestine and Israel. These relationships which are based on fear and confidence pose a big risk for the future of human civilization. Fear and mistrust have been at the centre stage of the nuclear weapon proliferation and thus it is necessary to make sure that this is solved. As many nations continue to look at each other with mistrust and fear, they will continue to proliferate the manufacturing of mass weapons and then eventually the tensions is no longer sustainable, the resulting conflict may tear apart human civilization. References Cohen, B. (2012). Anti-Puritan Pamphleteering and Popular Royalism, 6,9. Brown Journal Of History , pp. 63-81. Gibson, T. (2003). The Absence Of The Sacred: Democracy In The Age Of Militarism. Journal of the Institute of Justice and International Studies, 3, 6 , pp. 28-39. Hoffman, Z. (2012). “Let Us Save Haiti!”: The African American Perspective On The American Occupation OF HAITI, 1915-1934. Brown Journal Of History, 6, 9, , pp. 46-62. Popov, G. (2003). International Network & The New National Security Strategy: Legal Concerns In The Use Of Chemical Agents For Counter-Terrorism. Journal of the Institute Of Justice & International Studies, 3, 8, pp. 134-142. Wellia, O. (2012). Modern Global Politics and the Competition of Resources. Journal of Modern Political Science, 9,3 , PP. 56-59. Wilson, O. & Justus, K . (2012). Trust and interpersonal Relationships. Journal of Interpersonal Psychology , pp. 90-99. Read More