Fear Itself: The Politics of Fear & The New Deal

Is politics driven by fear as much as anything else? How do we understand our political and economic fears? The 1929 crash and the Great Depression that followed had no obvious cause, and some have argued was made worse by spreading fear that delegitimizes the efficient markets hypothesis. Fear also spread in the form of neurasthenia at the end of the 19th century. Similarly, Ira Katznelson argues that Roosevelt s New Deal was motivated as much by fear of the loss of segregation and fear of communism as anything else. How can we rationalize our emotions when it comes to politics? Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018 Or send me a one-off tip of any amount and help me make more videos: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JJ76W4CZ2A8J2 Original Score by August Aghast: Fear Itself Servant of Two Masters Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/augustaghast Twitter: https://twitter.com/augustaghast Buy on Amazon through this link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/2ykJe6L Follow me on: Facebook: http://fb.me/thethenandnow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thethenandnow/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lewlewwaller Sources: Richard Joyce, the Rational Fear of Monsters, British Journal of Aesthetics Harold James, 1929: The New York Stock Market Crash Representations, Vol. 110 No. 1, Spring 2010; (pp. 129-144) DOI: 10.1525/rep.2010.110.1.129 Yeonsik Jung, Fear of fear itself: diseased others in the American imagination Clarke, Lee & Chess, Caron. "Elites and Panic: More to Fear than Fear Itself." Social Forces, vol. 87 no. 2, 2008, pp. 993-1014. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/sof.0.0155 Ira Katznelson, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time