Fear Responses: Intersubjectivity, and the Hollow State

ABSTRACT

Fear responses increasingly have driven both citizens and governments to make personalized “buy” or “sell” decisions in the context of the border for political and economic ends. These buy or sell decisions often serve as a “balm” to demonstrate government is taking action within prevailing political narratives. More explicitly, shifting narratives about what should be feared allow individuals, states, and economic actors to repackage “fears” to enable the sale and resale of responses to them. These consumption choices reinforce buy or sell decisions as reactions to fear rather than more traditional service provision. Sales imply market driven economic exchanges. In government, they represent the movement away from traditional service delivery practices to privatized or contracted goods and services which often have less oversight, possibly exacerbating issues of deinstitutionalization.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Source: Walker, D. (July 15, 2014) “Report: Trends in U.S. Military Spending.” Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/report/trends-us-military-spending

2 This refers to a type of existentialism understood primarily from the German traditions. It refers to a combination of experiences (Heidegger 1962), authenticity (Kaufmann 1968), and awareness (Jaspers 1955, 1971). Briefly understood, differences in someone's lived experiences can have substantial impacts on the perception of people and events as well as physical reactions to them.

3 Historically, this is common practice see Balko (2014, 33) as an example.