The Politics of Debt

Fear is the strongest negative impulse. While rage may burn more fiercely, it dies quickly and is usually recognized for the irrational force it is, while fear can persist for a lifetime, invading the deepest parts of the mind and heart, taking over judgment and influencing disaster through timidity, worry, and panic. And one of the strongest factors in fear is money, especially debt. The sense of debt has destroyed careers, companies, and marriages, has broken the integrity of many men who never thought they would abandon their principles. Debt works on the spirit as a combination of stress, shame, obligation, and confinement. Just because there are no more debtors’ prisons does not mean that people in debt do not fear the loss of freedom, their home, property, lifestyle, and reputation. After all, the Mafia has made great profit from emphasizing just those conditions to prospective clients.

This brings us, indirectly, to politics. Politics is essentially the art of persuasion, to gain power and influence through the consent of the public. And politics have been around at least as long as money, and therefore debt, has existed. Politicians succeed by manipulating emotion, often playing on fear. Whether Republican or Democrat, American, European or Asian, whether first-world or third-world, consent of the governed is an undeniable need for politicians, and fear is always a prominent focus.

The rest should be obvious.