Fear is a state of mind induced as a protection against danger, real or imaginary. There are terrible apprehensions about now-a-days producing armaments and wars. But fear is not the primary cause of war, for behind the fear is danger, chiefly danger of want and loss of liberty. Even stronger than the fear of want and of actual destruction is a fear of degradation of freedom. People are apprehensive lest foreigners should cramp their self-development and creativeness even more than they are hampered at present, but are blind to the basic causes of present lack of freedom. When justice gives equal opportunities to all at home such fears will go; discussions on disarmament will also end; for a foreigner can do no harm in a country where true justice reigns. Civil wars arise because of the fears fed by the injustices so rife in society, and rulers can distract the workers from destitution and discontent by leading them to wars abroad. They easily arouse fears of over- population, of foreign competition, etc. "Unable to fill empty bellies with bread, the leaders aim instead at filling empty heads with collective hysteria,"[1] to the accompaniment of brass bands, flags and verbiage. Once war has begun, anger over the inevitable slaughter boils up. Indignation can be intoxicating especially if it be righteous even in imagination. Mob hatred can be pleasurable and, unfortunately, persistent.

Pacifists too often, through not understanding the causes of war and the economic conditions lying behind most anxieties, appeal to ethics. Many believe with Roosevelt that "any social, political or economic problem would melt away before the fire of a spiritual awakening." This overlooks the fact that the spirit is crippled by fears and by economic straits. From the time of the proposals for a league of nations during the Peloponnesian War down to the present century all efforts to establish peace by resort to disarmament discussions and courts of arbitration have proved futile. From the time of Isaiah to the latest European treaty most of the covenants built on foundations of that kind have proved merely "bargains with death, and compacts with hell." Too often do such discussions and so-called leagues act as a smoke-cloud obscuring the forces constantly tending to produce strife, envy, fear and hatred. These forces will vanish only when economics and its natural laws are recognized. Selfish and unselfish people alike use the multiplication table; similarly they use the laws of physics to make a steam-engine of an aeroplane. Discussion about these laws ceases so soon as they are widely apprehended. We gain advantages from our acceptance of and obedience to these laws, regardless of the ethics which influence individuals. So it will be when the laws of economics are understood.

The crowd is made up of individuals. Hence the crowd psychology cannot be entirely separated from the instincts and psychology of the individual. The reactions which affect the human crowd are in some particulars the same today as amongst primitive peoples, while in other respects they are definitely modified by the conditions prevailing in these times. Fear is a mental state more likely to be morbid and less likely to be useful in the crowd than in the individual and today than in ancient times. Religious feelings are based partly upon fear (Urfurcht is the German word), the fear of what is outside ourselves. There is also the life-instinct (Lebenstrieb) which may be associated with fear. Man is actuated by the three sets of instincts associated with the three words sustenance, sex and society, the three "s's." Fears enter sometimes into each of these domains and they may be interwoven in the individual's and in the crowd's mental state.

There are, today, peculiar forces tending to produce group fear. People are herded into and within cities more than ever; they are divorced from the land, from mother nature, and from the influence of the soil and the growing things thereon. They are led to think that certain countries are over-populated and that they cannot promote self-development so readily as in former times. Land monopoly and taxation are at the root of these retrogressions. If all taxes were abolished and the public's only proper revenue, the land rent from occupants of sites were collected, then everyone could hold in full the products of his labor and get the interest on his capital. The natural initiative, industry and creativeness of man, in other words, self-determination would then be fostered. Hindrances to production and exchange and to international friendliness would disappear; and people would be better distributed on the ground and in occupations. ... But eyes to see these things are blinded. For people's minds are darkened by superstitions, and biased by early training and environment. The worst superstition constituting the greatest iniquity of all ages is particularly hard to root out; it is, that anyone can own the earth. The cloud of this iniquity is perceived from time to time hanging over society; but the means of dispelling it are not easy to learn. For example, the Communists of Russia have done much towards getting rid of private property in land; and they have accomplished a great deal the bring about self-determination of individuals and races. Consequently, they are not aggressively- minded towards their neighbors. But they have not banished fear. They have built vast armaments and have developed frightful preparedness for wars. This is because they have not discovered the necessary measures to banish the great iniquity and to ensure freedom. The vital law of rent is not known to them. They still have taxes, particularly those covertly extracted by profits on State monopoly enterprises. Therefore, Communism is based on bloodshed and has cause for fearing neighbors. It has been founded on slaughter and is a dictatorship. It is no antidote to Fascism.

To study briefly the mental development of the individuals who make up the herd: The psychology of the individual is largely determined by the influences which act at a very early age. In spite of modern teaching few young children can grow up in an atmosphere of freedom. They are seldom even looked at with unbiased eyes, for adults are blinded by the prejudices and pre-occupations they have themselves acquired. Those who do not understand what freedom is are very apt to blame human nature for society going askew. Similarly, few indeed are those persons throughout history who have taught that the child may be right. At last people are beginning to learn that not only the small difficulties of the child and the great ones of adult life, but also that social unrest and chaos are just mistakes which better knowledge can rectify. A child is handicapped by his parents finding themselves unable to give him the necessary materials and understanding for his work. Again, a youth is often forced to take up an occupation for which he has no liking. Creativeness and self-expression are thwarted.

1. Aldus Huxley Beyond the Mexique Bay.

2. See my book on The Growth and Distribution of Population. (Geo. Allen & Un- win, Ltd., London, and J. Wiley & Son New York, 1935).