State of Fear

Laura Dodsworth

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Psychology

Informations

• Publié par: Pinter & Martin Limited
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 0001
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781780667232
• Langue: English

Extrait

A State of Fear is dark and compelling, and yet woven throughout with the determination - the heartfelt need - to get beyond these dreadful days. When governments sow fear they must reap a bitter crop. From the beginning of lockdown I have been worried to death about the certain and unavoidable consequences of making and keeping an entire population frightened. Already we see that too many people regard their fellow citizens - even family and friends - as the enemy, petri dishes swimming with contagion. As a population and a society we are atomised as never before. I can scarcely imagine how the damage done might be undone. Most of all I fear what all of this has done - and will continue to do - to compromise the futures of our children. All of these concerns and many more besides are given a desperately needed airing between the pages of this book. This is a timely piece of work, shot through with the voices of frightened people. Those voices must be heard and properly listened to. Altogether this is a fascinating consideration of how fear has been used again and again throughout history and in one civilisation after another, so that governments and others in authority might get their own way. A State of Fear is an affecting and troubling read.
Neil Oliver, writer and broadcaster
This is an important book. The use of fear as a tool of political management is a major challenge to democracy which everyone should reflect upon, whatever their view about lockdowns and Covid-19.
Lord Sumption
This book is a thoroughly researched account of the amplification of public fear throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. It asks vital questions about the science and ethics of behavioural interventions. These have gone beyond nudging to undermine democratic values and the rule of law. UK citizens will suffer from the consequences for many years to come.
Robert Dingwall, Professor of Sociology, Nottingham Trent University
A chilling post-mortem of 2020 s silent epidemic - fear - and how it was used by a behavioural science apparat to terrify us into submission. It s a thorough, fascinating and important book which I absolutely loved - I couldn t put it down!
Patrick Fagan, behavioural scientist
Laura Dodsworth slices open the culture of fear we have been deliberately manipulated to experience in this pandemic crisis with a journalistic forensic scalpel. The role of behavioural science in instilling fear in the UK population is explored through the lens of those involved in developing policies, outlier academics , experts and researchers who have questioned the dominant fear-based policy narrative. Analysis of events and expert testimony is interspersed with heart-breaking vignettes of the real-life experiences of fear that people lived with during the pandemic. The events and experiences of this past year will take considerable time for us to unpack and comprehend, and A State of Fear is an excellent early analysis of one of the most concerning elements of government policy in this crisis. I was gripped by it and devoured it in one sitting. There is no doubt that our collective cognitive roadmap in relation to fear and risk perception has been completely obliterated in the past year. Naming and acknowledging what has happened is an important first step to recovery. Books like this will help us get there and heal.
Professor Ellen Townsend,
Professor of Psychology, University of Nottingham
Laura Dodsworth has a rare and beautiful talent to observe a situation, process its many layers and present it to the world in exquisite, thought-provoking detail. Without hysteria or anger, she has studied and distilled the forces at work throughout the Covid pandemic so that we may see the world more clearly. This is a vital, eye-opening book which provides balance to an otherwise one-sided story.
Beverley Turner, writer and broadcaster
What speaks so powerfully in this work are the voices of those affected by the extraordinary social experiment that lockdown has been. Dodsworth draws out their experiences and puts them centre stage, while taking the reader through the techniques and strategies through which fear was made the most potent weapon in obtaining submission. A stimulating and often disturbing read.
Francis Hoar, barrister

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura Dodsworth is an author, journalist, photographer and filmmaker. Her books Bare Reality: 100 women, their breasts, their stories , Manhood: The Bare Reality and Womanhood: The Bare Reality have attracted worldwide media coverage and excellent reviews. Laura and the creation of Womanhood were the subject of a documentary for Channel 4, 100 Vaginas , which has been broadcast around the world.

A State of Fear: How the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic
First published in the UK by Pinter Martin Ltd 2021
Copyright Laura Dodsworth 2021
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-78066-720-1
Also available as an ebook and audiobook
The right of Laura Dodsworth to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade and otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher s prior consent in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
Printed in the UK by Martins the Printers Ltd.
This book has been printed on paper that is sourced and harvested from sustainable forests and is FSC accredited
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pinterandmartin.com
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Fright night
2. Fear spreads in the media like an airborne virus
3. Frightful headlines
4. Fear is a page of the government playbook
5. The business of fear and the unelected psychocrats
6. The SPI-B advisors
7. The tools of the trade
8. Controlled spontaneity and propaganda
9. Coercion
10. The metrics of fear
11. Counting the dead
12. The illusion of control
13. The climate of fear
14. Cults, conspiracy and psychic epidemics
15. Tyranny
16. Terrifying impacts
17. Why fear should not be weaponised
18. Happy endings are not written in the language of coercive control
19. Making sure it never happens again
20. The end, or is it a prequel?
Appendix 1: Data
Appendix 2: Lockdowns don t work
Appendix 3: Fight back against the nudge
Acknowledgements
References
Index
INTERVIEWS
Darren, 64
Sarah, 85, by her daughter
Susan, 15, by her grandmother
Jane, 68
Austin, 75
Anonymous
Dave, hospital doctor
Mavis, 35
Emily, 45, nurse
Rosie, 13, by her mother
Mark, 44
Jimmy, 32, by his mother
Joseph, 60, counsellor
Sam, 30, paramedic
Ella, 47
Names have been changed to protect anonymity.
The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging.
From Options for increasing adherence to social distancing measures , by the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour (SPI-B), 22 March 2020.
INTRODUCTION
T his is a book about fear. Fear of a virus. Fear of death. Fear of change, fear of the unknown. Fear of ulterior motives, agenda and conspiracy. Fear for the rule of law, democracy, the western liberal way of life. Fear of loss: losing our jobs, our culture, our connections, our health, our minds. It s also about how the government weaponised our fear against us - supposedly in our best interests - until we were one of the most frightened countries in the world.
In one of the most extraordinary documents ever revealed to the British public, the behavioural scientists advising the UK government recommended that we needed to be frightened. The Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour (SPI-B) said in their report Options for increasing adherence to social distancing measures , 1 dated 22 March 2020, that a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened; it could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group, although levels of concern may be rising . As a result they recommended that the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging . In essence, the government was advised to frighten the British public to encourage adherence to the emergency lockdown regulations.
And frighten us they did. This book explores why the government used fear, the specific tactics, the people behind them, and the impacts of fear, including stories from people who were undone by fear during the epidemic. Most of all, this book asks you to think about the ethics of using fear to manage people.
Fear is the most powerful of emotions and, as emotions are stronger than thoughts, fear can overpower the clearest of minds. We shouldn t feel bad about being frightened. From an evolutionary perspective, it is key to our survival: it protects us from danger. And that is precisely what makes fear one of the most powerful tools in behavioural psychology.
This exploration of fear led me to interview people who have been too frightened to leave their homes all year, conspiracy theorists , psychologists, some of the behavioural scientists who advised government, scientists, politicians, doctors, pandemic planners and journalists.
By the end of March 2021, Covid had been involved in the deaths of 2.8 million 2 people globally. The disease will continue to kill more, even though hopefully the biggest waves are behind us in the UK. The aim of this book is not to refute that Covid-19 is a serious disease that has killed people, most particularly the elderly and those with certain underlying health conditions, especiall