“The Man in the Glass Booth” is an interesting film about a New Yorker who is thought to have been a Nazi concentration camp officer. He is brought to Israel for trial, and asked to explain how Hitler gained power. We thought he would mention anti-Semitism or revenge for World War I. Instead he said, “Hitler knew what we were afraid of; he was afraid of it, too.”

Fear is a powerful emotion, probably the most powerful. Frightened people do irrational things and are easily led. First came Covid, two years of Covid, two years of fear-mongering reports leading every TV news report, two years of scare stories on almost every front page. Covid will be squeezed for every drop of fear it can incite. Then the elite will more on to fear of climate change, or fear of a GOP insurrection, or whatever. But always an “existential threat.”

Either we will say, “Enough! No more scare stories. What we’re really afraid of is fear-mongering politicians and media, who try to keep us in a perpetual state of terror and submission.” Or we will descend from independent citizens to obedient subjects. Our choice.