Fear | Kevin Barrett's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Fear’

Just Shy Of Me

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Disapproval, Fear, Humiliation, Introversion, Painful, Philosophy, Quotes, Shyness, Susan Cain on May 28, 2026| 10 Comments »

Shyness is the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating. Shyness is inherently painful; introversion is not.

— Susan Cain

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Click here (28 May) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Just To Be Perfectly Clear

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Adrift - America In 100 Charts, Economic Anxiety, Fear, High Blood Pressure, Immortality, Philosophy, Poverty, Productivity, Quotes, Scott Galloway, Starvation, Workers, Wrong on April 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

To be clear, I am not someone who believes that workers are only productive when they fear starvation. That’s immoral and simply wrong. Economic anxiety is like high blood pressure: it’s a drag on energy and effectiveness, not a spur. Only someone who’s never been poor thinks poor people work harder when we take more away from them.

— Scott Galloway
From his book: “Adrift – America in 100 charts“

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Click here (27 April) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Doctrine Proposal

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Carl Sagan, Doctrine, Fear, Paradox, Philosophy, Political System, Quotes, Social Life, Subversive, Transformation, Truth on February 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I wish to propose a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.

I must, of course, admit that if such an opinion became common it would completely transform our social life and our political system; since both are at present faultless, this must weigh against it.

— Carl Sagan

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Click here (6 February) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Take A Walk With Me…

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Action, Dr. Henry Link, Fear, Philosophy, Quotes, Sitting on December 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action.

— Dr. Henry Link

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Click here (10 December) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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How #47:DonTheWannaBeDictator Treats Opposition And Friends

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Children, Coercion, Consequence, Duty, Fear, How Children Fail, Ideas, Illusions, John C. Holt, Philosophy, Quotes on December 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The idea of painless, nonthreatening coercion is an illusion. Fear is the inseparable companion of coercion, and its inescapable consequence. If you think it your duty to make children do what you want, whether they will or not, then it follows inexorably that you must make them afraid of what will happen to them if they don’t do what you want. You can do this in the old-fashioned way, openly and avowedly, with the threat of harsh words, infringement of liberty, or physical punishment. Or you can do it in the modern way, subtly, smoothly, quietly, by withholding the acceptance and approval which you and others have trained the children to depend on; or by making them feel that some retribution awaits them in the future, too vague to imagine but too implacable to escape.

― John C. Holt
From: “How Children Fail“

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Click here (2 December) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Judged Importance

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Absence, Ambrose Redmoon, Courage, Fear, Importance, Judgment, Philosophy, Quotes on October 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.

— Ambrose Redmoon

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Click here (12 October) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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I’m Afraid Not…

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Belief, Conquering, Eleanor Roosevelt, Fear, Philosophy, Quotes on August 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do…

— Eleanor Roosevelt

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Click here (25 August) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Enjoying Stillness

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Amusement, Company, Fear, Judgment, Paulo Coelho, Philosophy, Quotes, Solitude on August 11, 2025| 2 Comments »

Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.

— Paulo Coelho

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Click here (11 August) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Resist

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Brave, Courage, Cowardice, Fear, Mark Twain, Mastery, Philosophy, Quotes, Resistance on July 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward, it is not a compliment to say he is brave; it is merely a loose misapplication of the word.

— Mark Twain

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Click here (15 July) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Being Me, Now

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Beautiful Times, Fear, Hopes, Jean-Paul Sartre, Laughter, Man, Philosophy, Quotes, Sharing on June 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.

— Jean-Paul Sartre

There may be more beautiful times, but this one is ours.

— Jean-Paul Sartre

[Share your hopes and laughter as well as your fears. — kmab]

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Click here (13 June) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Recognizing Fear

Posted in Education, Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Bad Habits, Children, Education, Fear, Philosophy, Quotes, School on May 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

For many years I have been asking myself why intelligent children act unintelligently at school. The simple answer is, “Because they’re scared.” I used to suspect that children’s defeatism had something to do with their bad work in school, but I thought I could clear it away with hearty cries of “Onward! You can do it!” What I now see for the first time is the mechanism by which fear destroys intelligence, the way it affects a child’s whole way of looking at, thinking about, and dealing with life. So we have two problems, not one: to stop children from being afraid, and then to break them of the bad thinking habits into which their fears have driven them.

What is most surprising of all is how much fear there is in school. Why is so little said about it. Perhaps most people do not recognize fear in children when they see it. They can read the grossest signs of fear; they know what the trouble is when a child clings howling to his mother; but the subtler signs of fear escaping them. It is these signs, in children’s faces, voices, and gestures, in their movements and ways of working, that tell me plainly that most children in school are scared most of the time, many of them very scared. Like good soldiers, they control their fears, live with them, and adjust themselves to them. But the trouble is, and here is a vital difference between school and war, that the adjustments children make to their fears are almost wholly bad, destructive of their intelligence and capacity. The scared fighter may be the best fighter, but the scared learner is always a poor learner.

― John C. Holt
From his book: “How Children Fail“

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Click here (25 May) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Your Own Idiot Detection System

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Commencement Address, Compassion, Cruelty, Don't Trust Idiots, Dwight Shroute, Empathy, Evanstone, Fear, https://speakola.com/, Idiots, Illinois, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Judgement, Kindness, Northwestern University, Other Website, Philosophy, Quotes, Star Wars, Strength, Successful, The Office, Weakness on March 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

‘Whenever I’m about to do something, I think, would an idiot do that, and if they would, I do not do that thing.‘ — Dwight Shroute

The entire efficacy of this incredibly useful piece of information hinges upon your ability to pick the right idiot. I wish there was a foolproof way to spot idiots, but counterintuitively, some idiots are very smart. They can dazzle you with words and misdirection. They can get promoted above you at work. They can even be elected president.

If you want to be successful in this world, you have to develop your own idiot detection system. As part of the responsibilities of being your commencement speaker, I’m going to share mine. Sure. I’m naturally suspicious of people who never saw the original Star Wars movies, and even more cautious of people who loved the prequels and the sequels. But I admit this is not a reliable idiot indicator. No. The best way to spot an idiot, look for the person who is cruel. Let me explain. When we see someone who doesn’t look like us, or sound like us, or act like us, or love like us, or live like us, the first thought that crosses almost everyone’s brain is rooted in either fear or judgement or both. That’s evolution. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things that we aren’t familiar with. In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct and force our brain to travel a different pathway.

Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being. They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges. This may be a surprising assessment because somewhere along the way in the last few years, our society has come to believe that weaponized cruelty is part of some well-thought out Master plan. Cruelty is seen by some as an adroit cudgel to gain power. Empathy and kindness are considered weak. Many important people look at the vulnerable only as rungs on a ladder to the top. I’m here to tell you that when someone’s path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct. They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their own instinctual fears. And so their thinking and problem solving will lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people have in spades. Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true. The kindest person in the room is often the smartest.

— Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker
From his speech: ‘Don’t trust idiots‘
Northwestern University Commencement Speech
14 June 2023, Northwestern University, Evanstone, Illinois

The full text of the speech is available at: https://speakola.com/grad/jb-pritzker-dont-trust-idiots-northwestern-university-2023
— kmab]

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Click here (22 March) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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#47DonTheFelon Is Both Child And Father

Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, tagged #47DonTheFelon, American Politics, Censorship, Children, Fathers, Fear, Ignorance, Laurie Halse Anderson, Politics, Quotes on February 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.

— Laurie Halse Anderson

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Click here (20 February) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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When It’s Your Turn At Bat

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Fear, Games, Laurie Halse Anderson, Life, Living, Philosophy, Quotes, Striking Out on February 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Life is for the living. Don’t let the fear of striking out let you from keep you from playing the game.

— Laurie Halse Anderson

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Click here (17 February) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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In Support Of Jim Acosta, A Free Press And American Democracy

Posted in General Comments, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, tagged #NoFear, #NoLies, A Free Press, American Politics, Fear, General Comments, Jim Acosta, Lies, Philosophy, Quotes on January 28, 2025| 2 Comments »

I will not give in to the lies! I will not give in to the fear!

— kmab (as requested by Jim Acosta)

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Click here (28 January) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.