Fear and Self-Hatred: the two emotions driving the West
Fear is generally considered the steam that drives the human emotional engine. Thomas Hobbes argued that fear of violent death underpins social order. Niccolò Machiavelli observed that rulers often govern more reliably through fear than love. Charles Darwin framed fear as a vital, evolved response to danger — an essential survival mechanism.
Modern neuroscience, notably Joseph LeDoux’s work, shows how fear circuits rapidly prepare the body for action. This dynamic operates politically as well. In A State of Fear, I argued that behavioural scientists and government messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic deliberately amplified public fear to increase compliance. Fear thus becomes not only biological fuel necessary for survival, but a tool of governance.
There is another emotional experience that fogs our view and ruins our society: self-hatred.
This is a peculiar form of self-hatred. It has metastasised from a hatred of the West’s prosperity, democracy and Christian legacy. The sufferer seeks to differentiate themselves from the country and culture of their own birth — to signal that they are different, they are better, they stand with the ‘opposed’, whoever the opposed is. This hatred of the West is de facto hatred of the self, since they were born of the West, enjoy its relative safety, peace and wealth, and yet choose to undermine its solidity rather than acknowledge its foundations.
In a similar way, fear and self-hatred are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Fear was dressed up in social responsibility — if you can save just one elderly person’s life, it justifies closing schools, shutting down manufacture and retail, interfering with every aspect of life. People shamed others for not wearing face masks. This shame was actively encouraged by the state, turning citizens into monitors of each other, enforcing compliance with what was at best symbolic and at worst harmful.
Self-hatred wears equally pernicious clothing. Those who hate our way of life, our democracy, safety and prosperity pretend they care more for humanity, equality, justice. But their actions often signal alignment with regimes and ideologies that actively suppress these values. Virtue signalling replaces moral clarity. They put outrage above careful and honest discernment.
Consider an example overheard at the orthodontist, one of the epicentres of middle-class posturing. Sandwiched between a mother and a receptionist’s small talk about holiday destinations, the mother proffered her daughter not a sandwich, but a Lebanese takeaway “to support the people of Lebanon who are being bombed.”
A few things were happening.
