Additional insights into are offered by Beyond Intractability project participants.
Fear is a very important factor in intractable conflict. Emotions like fear can often cause extreme and seemingly irrational behavior in people, which can result in escalating conflict. According to James F. Mattil, the Managing Editor of Flashpoints: Guide to World Conflict, "The common thread that weaves violent political movements together is fear. It is not the only motivating factor behind political violence, nor necessarily the most obvious, but it is virtually always there. Whenever we ask why people hate, or why they are willing to kill or die for a cause, the answer is invariably fear."[5]
People are social in nature, with shared values, religion, tradition, language, etc. Whenever the basic characteristics that tie a group together are threatened, the group will fear for its survival. As a result, the group will also attempt to get rid of the threat, sometimes through distorted or violent means.
History plays an important role in this process. Historical experiences shape how groups view threats. If a group has been hurt or wounded in the past, it affects their outlook today. For example, historical tensions and wrongdoing affect the way Israelis and Palestinians see each other today. Oftentimes, history is exaggerated -- meaning one group is portrayed as extremely heroic and another group portrayed as barbarian or inhuman. This in turn leads to more mistreatment, as it is easier to abuse or hurt a group that has been dehumanized . A cycle develops--someone is hurt, resulting in fear and the demonization of the person or group that hurt them. This, in turn, makes it easier for future wrongdoing to occur.
It is also important to note the impact that elites , or leaders, have on fear and conflict. Oftentimes, leaders use fear to their political advantage. Leaders need support from those they lead, and one way to gain this support is by playing on the fears of the people. Leaders in Northern Ireland can use the fear of either the Protestants or the Catholics to their own political advantage. Many have asserted that George Bush used the fear of another 9-11 to support the second U.S. war in Iraq. Leaders can even intentionally deepen these fears for their own purposes. Doing so can aggravate the already existing fears and lead to future difficulties.[6]
Individuals: There are many ways of approaching fear in the context of conflict. However, since fear is such a personal issue, most approaches focus on the individual. There are various ways to deal with your own fear, including
In order to overcome fears, individuals and groups must first come to terms with their own fears and understand just how destructive they can be. However, it is equally important to be aware of others' fears. Being aware of other people's fear allows you to deal with it appropriately. One of the most effective ways of handling the fear of others is through empathy, or seeing things from the other person's perspective. Once one does that, one can recognize actions of one's own that might be unnecessarily causing fear on the other side. By toning down one's language, or clarifying one's interests and needs, it is possible to dispel unwarranted fears, thereby helping the other side feel more secure. Empathy is also important in any attempt at reconciliation or mediation because it helps to foster a positive interaction between people.[8] It is also important to share your own fears so that others can empathize with you in return, and alter their behavior in ways that will lessen that fear as well.
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." -- |
Officials: Public support is essential for political leaders. One way leaders can gain this support is by addressing, playing off of, or even causing the fears of his or her people. As a result, leaders can play an important role in the creation and/or calming of fears, particularly in ethnic or inter-group conflicts. It is important that leaders are aware of the consequences of using fear as a motivational tool. Because fear is such a powerful emotion, leaders must be extremely cautious about playing on the fears of people. The former Yugoslavia is a perfect example of how the fears of the people can be used by leaders for power. Serb leaders often played on Serb fears in order to strengthen their power and to push people to do things they might otherwise have refused to do.[9] Contrast this with the very famous quote of Franklin Roosevelt: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." This is an overstatement...fear can be real and justified, but it is far too dangerous to exploit for other aims.
Third Parties: Mediators and third parties can play an important part in helping people to overcome their fears. By understanding the ways in which fear can create and escalate conflict, third parties can address these issues in a constructive manner. One way this can be accomplished is by assuring that people on both sides of a conflict feel that their individual needs and fears are being addressed. Oftentimes this is done through no-fault discussions, wherein people are not allowed to discuss who is wrong in a situation, but only ways in which they may move toward a peaceful resolution. Neither side should have to sacrifice in areas that they consider to be an important need or fear. Solutions must always "satisfy fundamental needs and allay deepest fears."[10]
It is also important to remember that an issue such as identity and the fears associated with it are not zero-sum . In other words, the calming of one group's fear does not necessarily mean that another group has more reason to fear. Usually quite the opposite is true. The more secure one group feels, the less they feel a need to attack other groups. Thus security can actually be a win-win or positive sum game: the more one side has, the more the other side has too. This is true from the bully on the playground...who is usually an insecure child, to the bully in the international system.
Through empathy and understanding, groups in conflict can learn about the fears and needs of others and, in the process, overcome their own fears as well.
[1] Merriam-Webster Online [book on-line] (accessed 7 March 2003); available from http://www.webster.com ; Internet.
[2] Paul Wahrhaftig, Belgrade Combating Fear Project [article on-line] (accessed 11 March 2003); available from http://www.conflictres.org/vol181/belgrade.html ; Internet.
[3] James F. Mattil, What in the Name of God?: Fundamentalism, Fear & Terrorism [article on-line] (accessed 7 March 2003); available from http://www.flashpoints.info/issue-briefings/Analysis%20&%20Commentary/Analysis-Religion-main.htm ; Internet.
[4] Steve Utterwulghe, Rwanda's Protracted Social Conflict: Considering the Subjective Perspective in Conflict Resolution Strategies [article on-line] (accessed 7 March 2003); available from http://www.trinstitute.org/ojpcr/2-3utter.htm ; Internet.
[5] James F. Mattil, What in the Name of God?: Fundamentalism, Fear & Terrorism [article on-line] (accessed 7 March 2003); available from http://www.flashpoints.info/issue-briefings/Analysis%20&%20Commentary/Analysis-Religion-main.htm ; Internet.
[6] Herbert Kelman, "Social-Psychological Dimensions of International Conflict," in Peacemaking in International Conflict: Methods and Techniques, eds. I. William Zartman and J. Lewis Rasmussen (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997), 197.
[7] **Endnote missing (will add later).
[8] Herbert Kelman, "Social-Psychological Dimensions of International Conflict," in Peacemaking in International Conflict: Methods and Techniques, eds. I. William Zartman and J. Lewis Rasmussen (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997), 199.
[9] Anthony Oberschall, The manipulation of ethnicity: from ethnic cooperation to violence and war in Yugoslavia [article on-line] (accessed 13 March 2003); available from http://www.unc.edu/courses/2002fall/soci/326/039/manipulation-of-ethnicity.pdf ; Internet.
[10] Herbert Kelman, "Social-Psychological Dimensions of International Conflict," in Peacemaking in International Conflict: Methods and Techniques, eds. I. William Zartman and J. Lewis Rasmussen (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997), 197.
Use the following to cite this article: Barker, Phil. "Fear." Beyond Intractability . Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: July 2003 < http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/fear >.
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Montaigne’s Essays is of major importance for the philosophy of fear. In this work, Montaigne provides narratives of a variety of fears, and in doing so describes a full palette of fear-related emotions, from individual doubts and avoidance, to terror and generalised panic. Montaigne’s analysis and treatment of fear is unique because he is among the first philosophers to openly discuss his own fears and the variety of philosophical therapies he used to subdue them. After employing Stoic and Epicurean remedies, Montaigne found the most useful philosophical therapy in the sceptical Pyrrhonian tradition. Thus, the Essays express an open-minded, particularistic and anti-dogmatic approach to life. Montaigne’s motto ‘What do I know?’ reflects his non-partisan approach and receptiveness to improving his emotional well-being, as well as increasing his knowledge and joy of life by accepting life events as these unfold.
It is fear that I am most afraid of: In harshness it surpasses all other mischances . Michel de Montaigne, Essays (Book I, “On fear”) (Montaigne 2003 )
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It is difficult to introduce Montaigne as a philosopher, as he did not belong to the ‘establishment’ nor did he want to become a ‘professional’ philosopher. He was a ‘humanist’ in the sense of Petrarch and Erasmus, a man of letters, and a politician. Nevertheless, the Essays is the work of a profound philosopher, one of the most original thinkers of the Renaissance who understood the human soul as few before or after him. Julie Roberts ( 2015 , p. 246) considers the Essays as a “pathographically curative” text, with the effort to examine oneself as one of the main aspects of philosophical therapy. She connects Montaigne’s therapy with Foucault’s “care of the self” (Foucault 1986 ). Rachel Starr ( 2012 , p. 436) considers the Essays as the pinnacle of “humanistic psychotherapy.”
After publishing the first edition in 1580, Montaigne continued adding material, which creates some confusion, as he did not correct his previous concepts even when they were in contradiction with the new ones. The additions from 1580 to 1588 are marked with a “B”, whereas the additions from 1588–1592 made in the 1588 ‘Bordeaux copy’ (first published in 1595) are marked with a “C”. I have used Screech’s translation (Montaigne 2003 ), but also added material from Frame’s translation whenever I considered the concept to be more clearly conveyed (Montaigne 1965 ). Reference to specific essays will be given to by volume and number, and page numbers within specific essays will be referred to by volume, essay, and page number. Letters A, B and C are used, when necessary, to indicate the different editions.
The presence of clearly demarcated philosophical stages in Montaigne’s intellectual evolution has been contested by a number of authors, and is extensively discussed in Bermúdez ( 2015 , pp. 54–61). Frame ( 1955 , pp. 5–7) describes three periods in Montaigne’s philosophical development: the first one (“Stoic period”) extended from 1572 to 1574; the second one (“Sceptical period”) extended from 1575 to 1577, and the final period (“Epicurean period”) extended from 1578 until Montaigne’s death in 1592.
This type of autobiographical writing was not new (Montaigne’s Essays was preceded by Augustine’s Confessions and Petrarch’s Secretum ), but Montaigne’s text is unique in the frankness of personal descriptions, in which a reader of any place and period may be easily reflected.
Fear is a main theme in I.6 “The hour of parley is dangerous”, I.11 “On prognostications”, I.16 “On punishing cowardice”, I.19 “That we should not be deemed happy till after our death”, I.20 “To philosophise is to learn how to die”, I.21 “On the power of imagination”, I.33 “On fleeing from pleasures at the cost of one’s life”, I.39 “On solitude”, and I.57 “On the length of life”.
This sounds anachronistic, but the extrapolation of the Essays into contemporary life is commonly practiced and for good reasons (Lazar and Madden 2015 , pp. 1–2), as fear is one of the most primitive human emotions, the phenomenology in terms of feelings and behaviour has not changed in its conceptual essence, and the main causes of this emotion are perennial, such as the fear of death, poverty, sickness and wars.
Scholar ( 2010 ), remarks that the Essays “haunt its readers” by the free-thinking style of Montaigne’s writings. Montaigne was a scholar, but fiercely anti-dogmatic, anti-authoritarian, and able to make “all questions accessible to his readers” (Scholar 2010 , p. 7).
“When he is threatened with a blow nothing can stop a man closing his eyes, or trembling if you set him on the edge of a precipice…” (A.2.3.388).
“Anyone who is afraid of suffering suffers already of being afraid” (3.13.1243).
The main essays discussing the fear of death are “Constancy” (1.12), “That the taste of good and evil…” (1.14), “That to philosophise is to learn to die” (1.20), “Solitude” (1.39) and “The inconsistency of our own actions” (2.1).
The topic on the futility of premeditation is discussed in-depth in the penultimate essay “On physiognomy” (3.22).
“I am one of those by whom the powerful blows of the imagination are felt most strongly. Everyone is hit by it, but some are bowled over” (A.1.21.109).
“When I contemplate an illness I seize upon it and lodge it within myself” (C.1.21.109).
“Once the pain has gone I am not much depressed by weakness or lassitude. I know of several bodily afflictions which are horrifying even to name but which I fear less than hundreds of current disturbances and distresses of the mind” (C.3.13.1245).
“Then, there is no madness, no raving lunacy, which such agitations do not bring forth” (A.1.8.30).
“Resigned to any outcome whatsoever once the dice have been thrown” (B.2.17.732); and “Few emotions have ever disturbed my sleep, yet even the slightest need to decide anything can disturb it for me” (B.2.17.732).
“In events I act like a man: in the conduct of events, like a boy. The dread of a tumble gives me more anguish than the fall” (B.2.17.733).
“…thank God we have nothing to do with each other” (A.1.24.143).
“I tell those who urge me to take medicine at least to wait until I am well and have got my strength back in order to have the means of resisting the hazardous effects of their potions” (A.1.24.143).
“Can I feel something disintegrating? Do not expect me to waste time having my pulse and urine checked so that anxious prognostics can be drawn from them: I will be in plenty of time to feel the anguish without prolonging things by an anguished fear” (B.3.13.1243).
His father lived to 74 years, a grandfather to 69, and a great-grandfather to almost 80, “none having swallowed any kind of drug” (A.2.37.864).
“How many men have been made ill by the sheer force of imagination? Is it not normal to see men bled, purged and swallowing medicines to cure ills which they feel only in their minds?” (A.2.12.547).
“Why do doctors first work on the confidence of their patient with so many fake promises of a cure if not to allow the action of the imagination to make up for the trickery of their potions? They know that one of the masters of their craft told them in writing that there are men for whom it is enough merely to look at a medicine for it to prove effective” (A.1.21.116). Thus, the trickery of doctors consisted in using medications as strong placebos to cure imaginary illnesses, as well as convincing patients that their drugs were curing an otherwise irreversible condition (Justman 2015 ).
Robert ( 2015 , pp. 721–744) has analysed the subtle way in which Montaigne ridiculed both physicians and patients for engaging in fully unproven expensive treatments.
“… they rob us of feelings and concern for what now is, in order to spend time over what will be – even when we ourselves shall be no more” (B.1.3.11).
“The continual suspicion, which leads a Prince to distrust everyone may torment him strangely” (A.1.24.145).
“So vain and worthless is human wisdom: despite all our projects, counsels and precautions, the outcome remains in the possession of Fortune” (A.1.24.143).
“The longest of my projects are for less than a year; I think only of bringing things to a close; I free myself from all fresh hopes and achievements” (C.2.28.797).
“My old age…deadens within me many of the desires and worries which trouble our lives: worry about the way the world is going; worry about money, honours, erudition, health… and me” (C.2.28.797).
“I am the most ill-disposed toward pain” (C.1.14.69).
“When my condition is bad I cling violently to my illness: I abandon myself to despair and let myself go towards catastrophe” (B.3.9.1072).
“Death is the only guarantor of our freedom, the common and ready cure of our ills” (A.1.14.53). Montaigne acceptance of suicide is not explicitly stated in the text, perhaps due to fear of the Inquisition.
It may also be the case that Montaigne had no firm opinion about the best ‘remedies’ for fear, and left different options open.
“The anxiety to do well…puts the soul on the rack, break it, and make it impotent” (Montaigne 1965 1.10.26, Frame’s translation).
Bakewell states that premeditation did not liberate Montaigne from his fears, but actually served to imprison him (Bakewell 2010 , p. 3).
“Do we ask to be whipped right now…just because it may be that Fortune will, perhaps, make you suffer a whipping some day?” (B.3.12.1189).
“No man has ever prepared to leave the world more simply nor more fully than I have. No one has more completely let go of everything than I try to do” (C.1.20.98) [my italics].
“How many country-folk do I see ignoring poverty; how many yearning for death or meeting it without panic or distress? That man over there who is trenching my garden has, this morning, buried his father or his son” (B.3.12.1178).
This description seems to idealise and romanticise the behaviour of the ‘lower classes’, but this is what Montaigne was contemplating, what he saw in his own estate. Although he cannot know what was going on in the minds of his peasants and he employs a clumsy generalisation I believe that this image can be read as being used to contrast different human responses to fear and to show that fear can be successfully dominated.
Hartle ( 2013 , p. 17) also believes in a more opinionated than a non-judgmental Montaigne, stressing that throughout the Essays Montaigne constantly makes judgments of all sorts. This is certainly true, except for the questions that obsessed Montaigne the most: the fears of sickness poverty and death. When discussing Montaigne’s scepticism in relation to Sextus Empiricus, Bermúdez Vazquez remarks that “philosophical speculation leads only to confusion because of the inevitability of uncertainty. It produces anxiety rather than peace of mind” (p. 17).
“Fear, desire, hope, impel us towards the future; they rob us of feelings and concern for what now is, in order to spend time over what will be – even when we ourselves shall be no more” (B.1.3.11).
This has obvious Buddhist resonances, and may be related to Montaigne’s admiration of Pyrrhonism, which has many affinities with Eastern thought (Beckwith 2015 ). Pyrrho’s main concepts as reported by Sextus Empiricus had been translated into French about 20 years before the first edition of the Essays (see Calhoun 2015 ).
Montaigne’s purported unnoticed way of life was only partially true, since while trying to stay away from the daily nuisance at his chateau, he would eagerly seek the company of the few erudite Montaigne had in esteem to engage in conversation, and more reluctantly, work for the king on political missions.
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to live to yourself” (A.1.39.272).
This is clarified in a footnote by Screech (Montaigne 2003 ) as “I make a distinction,” a term used in formal debates to reject or modify an opponent’s assertion.
“Life must be its own objective, its own purpose. Its right concern is to rule itself, govern itself, put up with itself” (C.3.12.1191).
The number following the year corresponds to the remark in Philosophical Investigations .
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Starkstein, S. (2018). Montaigne’s Essays : A Humanistic Approach to Fear. In: A Conceptual and Therapeutic Analysis of Fear. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78349-9_4
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Humans were born with two fears; fear of falling, and fear of loud noises. According to the Oxford dictionary, fear is "an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm", but this definition is only one of many to define the term of 'fear '. Fear is events that we perceive to be dangerous to ourselves and to others. Fear is something that everyone possesses, and when conquered, turns into achievement. Before we discuss what defines fear, a clear line must be drawn between fear and anxiety. Many people confuse fear for anxiety and vice versa. The difference is that fear is an emotional response to a danger that is real or a threat, while anxiety is thinking about future threats for long periods of time. In other …show more content…
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To start off, fear is a primal instinct that all animals feel, including humans. Fear usually is not fun for most people because we feel like there is an impeding doom about to come crashing down. The current President of The United States and past one tried to decrease our fear, but some people have more to be concerned about. These people are usually the poor. The past President I am speaking of is Franklin Roosevelt and his speech that helped decrease the people 's fear was “The Four Freedoms”.
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Humans are born to be afraid. A feeling of fear is only natural for humans to feel; it is a part of who we are. However, it can be more than just a feeling. Fear can be a weakness in humans even though it is only our natural instinct for survival. Sometimes, fear is so powerful that it can blur our rationality and dominate how we think and what we do.
Dr. Nichols (2010) writes; “Many fears are positive and productive because they prod [one] to do something about fearful situations” (p. 23). “Fear is a healthy, natural response that can turn unhealthy and manipulative” (Nichols, 2010, p. 70). The concept of action should be one of encouragement because fear can cause anxiety, anger, and depression. Anxiety “wastes mental, physical, and spiritual energy” (Nichols, 2010, p. 54), and anger is a “dangerous emotion that becomes a distraction from the main problem” (Nichols, 2010, p. 57). Fear can also cause bodily damage over a period of time, including heart disease, cancer, and damage to the immune system (Nichols,
Fear is an emotional response created amongst ourselves due to a sense of some sort of danger or threat. Fear is not only something one feels within but is also the root of the change in behavior. When fearing something or someone our first instinct is to hide or flee away from what is causing us to feel that way. It is an unpleasant emotion that only prevents a person from achieving their beliefs or goals.
One of the most known human emotion is fear. It is a feeling everyone has experienced at one time in their lives. Many people react to fear in different ways. Fear can be defined as general anxiety. Fear has a way to set obstacles in life which become too big to overcome.
How does fear affect how people act? What is fear? First off fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that something is dangerous. Fear is also a powerful emotion that can affect people in many different ways including some negative ways like making people lose their sense of mind. In Lord of The Flies fear caused the boys to become scared of the unknown and changed the way they thought.
Fear is a powerful human emotion, it's built in within all humans and controls the human behaviour. It is human nature to allow fear to control people’s thoughts and behaviors, preventing them from being their true selves, as seen is “The Step Not Taken”, “A Nonsmoker with a Smoker” and Bowling for Columbine. In the essay “The Step Not Taken” Paul was followed into an office-building by a well-dressed young man carrying a briefcase. Shortly after, the young man burst into tears, Paul stepped out of the elevator very confused as to why the young man was crying.
Fear can be very advantageous when it comes to surviving. Fear inhibits you from doing risky actions that can put you and others in danger; it keeps you cautious and careful. Even though fear helps you when surviving, fear can harm you in life. Fear can cause paranoia that keeps you from enjoying life. You start to obsess over minimal things leading to hallucination.
Fear is what you make of it because nothing is inherently scary it is what you take from the object or experience that makes it scary and fills your head with fear. This can have an effect on society and how people and their respective governments react to types of issues and problems. This leads to in extreme cases war and mass murder of a society that is being exploited as a scapegoat. In the book Lord of the Flies the author William Golding suggest the impact fear has on human nature and how it disrupts order and disorder in a society.
As a child, I lived in fear because of traumatic experiences. Starting in fifth grade, I witnessed a social worker take my cousin, from my arms, into the foster system. Afterward, I was terrified of being taken away until the end of my freshman year because I had social workers in my life. Once the social workers were gone, the fear of losing my loved ones began. During ninth grade, my mom discovered she had a spinal tumor and needed surgery.
What this handout is about.
This handout discusses the situational nature of writer’s block and other writing anxiety and suggests things you can try to feel more confident and optimistic about yourself as a writer.
“Writing anxiety” and “writer’s block” are informal terms for a wide variety of apprehensive and pessimistic feelings about writing. These feelings may not be pervasive in a person’s writing life. For example, you might feel perfectly fine writing a biology lab report but apprehensive about writing a paper on a novel. You may confidently tackle a paper about the sociology of gender but delete and start over twenty times when composing an email to a cute classmate to suggest a coffee date. In other words, writing anxiety and writers’ block are situational (Hjortshoj 7). These terms do NOT describe psychological attributes. People aren’t born anxious writers; rather, they become anxious or blocked through negative or difficult experiences with writing.
Although there is a great deal of variation among individuals, there are also some common experiences that writers in general find stressful.
For example, you may struggle when you are:
Get support.
Choose a writing buddy, someone you trust to encourage you in your writing life. Your writing buddy might be a friend or family member, a classmate, a teacher, a colleague, or a Writing Center tutor. Talk to your writing buddy about your ideas, your writing process, your worries, and your successes. Share pieces of your writing. Make checking in with your writing buddy a regular part of your schedule. When you share pieces of writing with your buddy, use our handout on asking for feedback .
In his book Understanding Writing Blocks, Keith Hjortshoj describes how isolation can harm writers, particularly students who are working on long projects not connected with coursework (134-135). He suggests that in addition to connecting with supportive individuals, such students can benefit from forming or joining a writing group, which functions in much the same way as a writing buddy. A group can provide readers, deadlines, support, praise, and constructive criticism. For help starting one, see our handout about writing groups .
Often, writers who are experiencing block or anxiety have a worse opinion of their own writing than anyone else! Make a list of the things you do well. You might ask a friend or colleague to help you generate such a list. Here are some possibilities to get you started:
Choose at least one strength as your starting point. Instead of saying “I can’t write,” say “I am a writer who can …”
Writing is an attempt to fix meaning on the page, but you know, and your readers know, that there is always more to be said on a topic. The best writers can do is to contribute what they know and feel about a topic at a particular point in time.
Writers often seek “flow,” which usually entails some sort of breakthrough followed by a beautifully coherent outpouring of knowledge. Flow is both a possibility—most people experience it at some point in their writing lives—and a myth. Inevitably, if you write over a long period of time and for many different situations, you will encounter obstacles. As Hjortshoj explains, obstacles are particularly common during times of transition—transitions to new writing roles or to new kinds of writing.
If block or apprehension is new for you, take time to understand the situations you are writing in. In particular, try to figure out what has changed in your writing life. Here are some possibilities:
It makes sense to have trouble when dealing with a situation for the first time. It’s also likely that when you confront these new situations, you will learn and grow. Writing in new situations can be rewarding. Not every format or audience will be right for you, but you won’t know which ones might be right until you try them. Think of new writing situations as apprenticeships. When you’re doing a new kind of writing, learn as much as you can about it, gain as many skills in that area as you can, and when you finish the apprenticeship, decide which of the skills you learned will serve you well later on. You might be surprised.
Below are some suggestions for how to learn about new kinds of writing:
Once you understand what readers want, you are in a better position to decide what to do with their criticisms. There are two extreme possibilities—dismissing the criticisms and accepting them all—but there is also a lot of middle ground. Figure out which criticisms are consistent with your own purposes, and do the hard work of engaging with them. Again, don’t expect an overnight turn-around; recognize that changing writing habits is a process and that papers are steps in the process.
Chances are that at some point in your writing life you will encounter readers who seem to dislike, disagree with, or miss the point of your work. Figuring out what to do with criticism from such readers is an important part of a writer’s growth.
Often, writing blocks occur at particular stages of the writing process. The writing process is cyclical and variable. For different writers, the process may include reading, brainstorming, drafting, getting feedback, revising, and editing. These stages do not always happen in this order, and once a writer has been through a particular stage, chances are they haven’t seen the last of that stage. For example, brainstorming may occur all along the way.
Figure out what your writing process looks like and whether there’s a particular stage where you tend to get stuck. Perhaps you love researching and taking notes on what you read, and you have a hard time moving from that work to getting started on your own first draft. Or once you have a draft, it seems set in stone and even though readers are asking you questions and making suggestions, you don’t know how to go back in and change it. Or just the opposite may be true; you revise and revise and don’t want to let the paper go.
Wherever you have trouble, take a longer look at what you do and what you might try. Sometimes what you do is working for you; it’s just a slow and difficult process. Other times, what you do may not be working; these are the times when you can look around for other approaches to try:
Okay, we’re kind of kidding with some of those last few suggestions, but there is no limit to what you can try (for some fun writing strategies, check out our online animated demos ). When it comes to conquering a block, give yourself permission to fall flat on your face. Trying and failing will you help you arrive at the thing that works for you.
Start storing up positive experiences with writing. Whatever obstacles you’ve faced, celebrate the occasions when you overcome them. This could be something as simple as getting started, sharing your work with someone besides a teacher, revising a paper for the first time, trying out a new brainstorming strategy, or turning in a paper that has been particularly challenging for you. You define what a success is for you. Keep a log or journal of your writing successes and breakthroughs, how you did it, how you felt. This log can serve as a boost later in your writing life when you face new challenges.
Wait a minute, didn’t we already say that? Yes. It’s worth repeating. Most people find relief for various kinds of anxieties by getting support from others. Sometimes the best person to help you through a spell of worry is someone who’s done that for you before—a family member, a friend, a mentor. Maybe you don’t even need to talk with this person about writing; maybe you just need to be reminded to believe in yourself, that you can do it.
If you don’t know anyone on campus yet whom you have this kind of relationship with, reach out to someone who seems like they could be a good listener and supportive. There are a number of professional resources for you on campus, people you can talk through your ideas or your worries with. A great place to start is the UNC Writing Center. If you know you have a problem with writing anxiety, make an appointment well before the paper is due. You can come to the Writing Center with a draft or even before you’ve started writing. You can also approach your instructor with questions about your writing assignment. If you’re an undergraduate, your academic advisor and your residence hall advisor are other possible resources. Counselors at Counseling and Wellness Services are also available to talk with you about anxieties and concerns that extend beyond writing.
Apprehension about writing is a common condition on college campuses. Because writing is the most common means of sharing our knowledge, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves when we write. This handout has given some suggestions for how to relieve that pressure. Talk with others; realize we’re all learning; take an occasional risk; turn to the people who believe in you. Counter negative experiences by actively creating positive ones.
Even after you have tried all of these strategies and read every Writing Center handout, invariably you will still have negative experiences in your writing life. When you get a paper back with a bad grade on it or when you get a rejection letter from a journal, fend off the negative aspects of that experience. Try not to let them sink in; try not to let your disappointment fester. Instead, jump right back in to some area of the writing process: choose one suggestion the evaluator has made and work on it, or read and discuss the paper with a friend or colleague, or do some writing or revising—on this or any paper—as quickly as possible.
Failures of various kinds are an inevitable part of the writing process. Without them, it would be difficult if not impossible to grow as a writer. Learning often occurs in the wake of a startling event, something that stirs you up, something that makes you wonder. Use your failures to keep moving.
We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.
Hjortshoj, Keith. 2001. Understanding Writing Blocks . New York: Oxford University Press.
This is a particularly excellent resource for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Hjortshoj writes about his experiences working with university students experiencing block. He explains the transitional nature of most writing blocks and the importance of finding support from others when working on long projects.
Rose, Mike. 1985. When a Writer Can’t Write: Studies in Writer’s Block and Other Composing-Process Problems . New York: Guilford.
This collection of empirical studies is written primarily for writing teachers, researchers, and tutors. Studies focus on writers of various ages, including young children, high school students, and college students.
You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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I have taught high school English for almost 25 years and can't imagine doing anything else!
Another thing to consider in a persuasive essay is that while you need to have a thesis you are proving, you can and should address the opposite argument. This balance shows your reader that you have considered the other side. This would be a way for you to acknowledge your own feelings on this topic. But remember, to be truly persuasive, you have to focus on and conclude strongly for your specific thesis.
Metcalf, Lisa. "How can the statement "Fear can prevent people from pursuing their dreams" be discussed in terms of both agreement and disagreement?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 8 Aug. 2011, https://www.enotes.com/topics/essay/questions/have-write-persuasive-essay-based-quote-fear--401749.
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Golden-Apple Award winner. Check out my really awesome blog at http://www.lingtechguistics.com.
Use the opening statement: The worst enemy of man is man himself.
Think about this: We are all born free. Children, the most raw and pure samples of the human experience, show us throughout their actions that they are more than willing to try anything and experience as much as they can, because they are often quite fearless. They succeed in their games because they are not biased, and dare to take chances. They find joy in the smallest of things because they go straight for it. Their affective filter is empty, that is, there is nothing stressful nor painful (in the case of a NORMAL child, that is) to hold them back.
If we approached life with the same fearlessness of children we may take shots that we may have otherwise refused to take. We could actually act better towards ourselves by giving ourselves more opportunities to both succeed and learn. That is one to persuade anyone: That freedom goes as far as we allow ourselves to experience it.
Ossa, Michelle P.. "How can the statement "Fear can prevent people from pursuing their dreams" be discussed in terms of both agreement and disagreement?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 8 Aug. 2011, https://www.enotes.com/topics/essay/questions/have-write-persuasive-essay-based-quote-fear--401749.
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I am a middle and high school English teacher, as well as an instructor in a Master of Education program at a major university.
In a persuasive essay, it is always best to choose one side. If you are choosing sides, you might want to pick the other side. The point is to provide evidence backing it up. You might want to begin by thinking of examples from your life or from history for each one.
Tracy, Trinity. "How can the statement "Fear can prevent people from pursuing their dreams" be discussed in terms of both agreement and disagreement?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 8 Aug. 2011, https://www.enotes.com/topics/essay/questions/have-write-persuasive-essay-based-quote-fear--401749.
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I am a passionate learner, and have a constant need to create. I teach all the "touchy-feely" classes in high school (English, Theatre, Speech, Journalism) and love it!
Are you REQUIRED to write about this quote? Since it seems you are on the fence about it, it may not be the best quote to write a persuasive essay about. However, if this is the assigned quote, I agree with auntlori.
You need to develop a thesis that you feel strongly enough about to write powerfully and persuasively. So, since you can see both sides of this issue, you may want to make your thesis say something about how fear is a powerful motivator both for good and for bad.
Michaelson, Anna. "How can the statement "Fear can prevent people from pursuing their dreams" be discussed in terms of both agreement and disagreement?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 7 Aug. 2011, https://www.enotes.com/topics/essay/questions/have-write-persuasive-essay-based-quote-fear--401749.
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Fear is powerful, and perhaps that is a better thesis for you. Then you can address both aspects of fear: fear which drives one to accomplish dreams and fear which prevents one from achieving dreams. If I were writing this essay, I would make a list of examples, real and hypothetical, for each of these positions. If the lists are fairly equal, writing about the power fear has to impact one's dreams. If the lists are imbalanced, choose the stronger position. Look for your examples from historical figures, sports and entertainment figures, people you know, and your own life. You should have plenty of material from which to draw for your essay.
Steinbach, Lori. "How can the statement "Fear can prevent people from pursuing their dreams" be discussed in terms of both agreement and disagreement?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 7 Aug. 2011, https://www.enotes.com/topics/essay/questions/have-write-persuasive-essay-based-quote-fear--401749.
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I grew up in Micronesia and went to high school in Hawaii.
I think that fear of failure is what prevents some people from chasing their dreams. If you pursue your dreams, you are leaving yourself open to failure. If you never really try, you can be more content. You can just tell yourself that if you really wanted to, you could achieve your dreams. But if you actually try and you fail, you have no illusions left. That's a scary thing. So people often don't take that risk and don't pursue their dreams.
Schimmel, Isabell. "How can the statement "Fear can prevent people from pursuing their dreams" be discussed in terms of both agreement and disagreement?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 7 Aug. 2011, https://www.enotes.com/topics/essay/questions/have-write-persuasive-essay-based-quote-fear--401749.
2,942 answers
I am a retired teacher, having facilitated learning experiences for gifted students of varying ages through a variety of program formats.
Do you want to persuade people that the quote is true or are you hoping to persuade people to rise above their fears in order to pursue their dreams? It will make a difference in the way you write your essay!
If you want to support the quote, I would suggest you use some illustrations from your personal experience if possible. What are some things you dream of doing but can't or won't because you are afraid for some reason? Would you like to go sky-diving but are too afraid of heights to jump out of the airplane?
If you want to persuade your readers to conquer their fears and try to achieve their dreams, you might want to find some illustrations from history. Christopher Columbus must have felt fear as he sailed west into the great unknown, but the dream of achieving riches by finding a shorter route to the Indies was great enough to overcome that fear.
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Curtis-Stolper, Linda. "How can the statement "Fear can prevent people from pursuing their dreams" be discussed in terms of both agreement and disagreement?" edited by eNotes Editorial, 7 Aug. 2011, https://www.enotes.com/topics/essay/questions/have-write-persuasive-essay-based-quote-fear--401749.
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The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in the 1930s came on the back of votes from millions of ordinary Germans – both men and women.
But aside from a few high-profile figures, such as concentration camp guard Irma Grese and “concentration camp murderess” Ilse Koch , little is known about the everyday women who embraced the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, known more commonly as the Nazi Party. What little data we do have on ordinary Nazi women has been largely underused, forgotten or ignored. It has left us with a half-formed understanding of the rise of the Nazi movement, one that is almost exclusively focused on male party members.
And yet more than 30 essays on the subject “Why I became a Nazi” written by German women in 1934 have been lying fallow in the archives of the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto for decades. These essays were only unearthed three years ago when three Florida State University professors arranged to have them transcribed and translated. They have since been made available digitally , but have not received widespread attention.
As scholars of Holocaust studies , crimes against humanity and political behavior , we believe the accounts of these women give an insight into the role of women in the rise of the Nazi party. They also point to the extent to which women’s attitudes on feminism differed after the Great War – a time when women were making gains in independence, education, economic opportunity and sexual freedom.
The German women’s movement had been among the most powerful and significant in the world for half a century before the Nazis came to power in 1933. Top-quality high schools for girls had existed since the 1870s, and German universities were opened to women at the beginning of the 20th century. Many German women became teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists and novelists. In 1919, German women got the vote . By 1933, women, of whom there were millions more than men – Berlin had 1,116 women for every 1,000 men – voted in roughly the same percentages as men for Hitler and National Socialist candidates.
The essays unearthed at the Hoover Institution give an insight as to why some of them did.
Dissatisfaction with the attitudes of the Weimar era, the period between the end of World War I and Hitler’s rise to power, is clear in the women’s writing. Most of the essay writers express distaste with some aspect of the political system. One calls women’s voting rights “a disadvantage for Germany,” while another describes the political climate as “haywire,” and “everyone was everyone’s enemy.” Margarethe Schrimpff, a 54-year-old woman living just outside of Berlin, describes her experience:
“I attended the meetings of all … parties, from the communists to the nationalists; at one of the democratic meetings in Friedenau [Berlin], where the former Colonial Minister, a Jew by the name of Dernburg, was speaking, I experienced the following: this Jew had the audacity to say, among other things: ‘What are the Germans actually capable of; maybe breeding rabbits.’ "Dear readers, do not think that the heavily represented stronger sex jumped up and told this Jew where to go. Far from it. Not one man made a sound, they stayed dead quiet. However, a miserable, frail little woman from the so-called ‘weaker sex’ raised her hand and forcefully rejected the Jew’s brazen remarks; he had in the meantime allegedly disappeared to attend another meeting.”
These essays were originally collected by an assistant professor at Columbia University, Theodore Abel, who organized an essay contest with generous prizes with the cooperation of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry. Of nearly 650 essays, roughly 30 were written by women, and Abel set them aside, explaining in a footnote that he intended to examine them separately. But he never did. The men’s essays formed the basis for his book, “ Why Hitler Came To Power ,” published in 1938, which remains an important source in the global discourse about the Nazi rise to power.
Summarizing Abel’s findings, historian Ian Kershaw wrote in his book on Hitler’s rise to power that they showed that the “appeal of Hitler and his movement was not based on any distinctive doctrine.” He concluded that almost a third of the men were attracted by the indivisible “national community” – Volksgemeinschaft – ideology of the Nazis, and a similar proportion were swayed by nationalist, super-patriotic and German-romantic notions. In only about an eighth of the cases was anti-Semitism the prime ideological concern, although two-thirds of the essays revealed some form of dislike of Jews. Almost a fifth were motivated by the Hitler cult alone, attracted by the man himself, but the essays reveal differences between men and women in the reason for the enthrallment with the Nazi leader.
For men, the cult of personality appears to center around Hitler as a strong leader charging toward a Germany which defined itself by those it excluded. It’s not surprising that women, on the cusp of exclusion themselves, were less captivated by this component of Nazism. Rather, the women’s essays tend to refer to religious imagery and sentiment conflating piety with the Hitler cult. The women appear to be moved more by Nazism’s proposed solutions to problems such as poverty rather than the supposed grandeur of Nazi ideology in the abstract.
In her essay, Helene Radtke, a 38-year-old wife of a German soldier, describes her “divine duty to forget about all my household chores and to perform my service to my homeland.”
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Agnes Molster-Surm, a housewife and private tutor, calls Hitler her “God-given Führer and savior, Adolf Hitler, for Germany’s honor, Germany’s fortune and Germany’s freedom!”
Another woman replaced the star on her Christmas tree with a photograph of Hitler surrounded by a halo of candles. These men and women shared the message of National Socialism as if it was gospel and refer to new party members as “converts.” One such woman describes early efforts to “convert” her family to Nazism as falling “on stony soil and not even the slightest little green sapling of understanding sprouted.” She was later “converted” through conversations with her mailman.
The essays do not only serve as historical curios, but as a warning as to how ordinary people can be attracted to extremist ideology at a time of social distress. Similar language has been used to describe the current political climate in the United States and other countries. Perhaps, as some do today , these women believed all their society’s ills could be solved by the restoration of their nation to a perceived state of former glory, no matter the cost.
This article is republished from The Conversation , a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Sarah R. Warren , Florida State University ; Daniel Maier-Katkin , Florida State University , and Nathan Stoltzfus , Florida State University
How women wage war – a short history of IS brides, Nazi guards and FARC insurgents
Hitler at home: How the Nazi PR machine remade the Führer’s domestic image and duped the world
Auschwitz: Women used different survival and sabotage strategies than men at Nazi death camp
Sarah R. Warren received funding for a portion of this work from the Florida State University Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement.
Daniel Maier-Katkin receives funding from National Science Fondation, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of State
Nathan Stoltzfus does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
by Nathalie Graham on August 21, 2024 at 7:18 am August 21, 2024 at 7:50 am
A new study from Seattle-based education research organization foundry10 found that 30% of students and teachers surveyed are using AI to help with the college essay and letters of recommendation process.
But while generative AI may help level the playing field by providing students who normally wouldn’t have access to college tutors or advisors, the ethical implications of using these tools are still unclear , at all levels of education.
“This is a huge question in education right now,” said Jennifer Rubin, a senior researcher at foundry10. “What does ethical use of generative AI look like?”
In the study, Rubin found a range in the way students utilized AI. Of the 30% who used generative AI for help on their essays, 50% used it for brainstorming ideas, 48% used it for spelling and grammar checks, 47% had it create an essay outline, 32% used it to generate a first draft, and 20% used it to create a final draft.
“There’s a range of activities and they really vary in regards to ethics as to what use can look like as opposed to questionable use,” Rubin said. “Generating a first essay and final essay draft is the ethically-murky area.”
Brainstorming, spell checking, and outline formation are viewed as more ethical. That’s on par with how a college admissions coach or tutor would help a student in the application process, Rubin said. Yet, it isn’t seen as a valid tool.
“There’s a bias against students who are using ChatGPT to help assist in the college essay writing process,” Rubin said.
That bias is held by students and teachers alike. In this same study, foundry10 polled teachers as well. Around 31% have used generative AI to craft letters of recommendations for students applying to colleges. They viewed their own use of AI as ethical — a timesaver for an increasingly demanding job— but viewed students using AI as unethical.
The difference, Rubin believes, is that when students utilize AI, they are viewed as taking a shortcut and not building necessary skills.
Part of the study included an experiment where people read the same paragraph from a college essay. While the paragraphs stayed the same, the information about how the student wrote the essay changed. One scenario explained the student received assistance from ChatGPT while writing the essay, another stated the student received help from a tutor. The control was a scenario where the student received no help. Participants answered questions about the student who wrote the paragraph.
Across the board, people rated the student who used ChatGPT as less competent, agentic, and likeable. On the other hand, students using a college admissions coach received an average competency rating.
“The generative AI approach was rated as less ethical and less beneficial,” Rubin said. “Surprisingly, participants rated this as more accessible than an admissions coach.”
College admissions tutoring and coaching has been on the rise for the better part of a decade. These for-hire people lay bare the application process and can often steer students in the right direction with their personal essays. They are sounding boards and guides which only those with means can utilize.
Rubin said she was a first-generation college student. The landscape was much different when she applied back in 2002, but it was still daunting for her. “At the time, I didn’t have resources to explore what the admissions cycle looked like and what made a good college essay,” she said. “I can see these [AI] tools as helping students who might not have access to those resources.”
Generative AI, which can be accessed for free via several available online tools, can do some of the work that a college coach could. For instance, Khan Academy last year launched an AI chatbot, Khanmigo, specifically designed to help students think through their college essays.
Rubin clarified that she didn’t believe generative AI would fix all the problems in college admissions. But, it can give students more agency over the process by helping them easily research what colleges match their interests, potential majors, and giving them a tool to help with their essays.
“Generative AI can potentially fill a gap,” Rubin said.
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Acclaimed Australian poet, editor and critic Fiona Wright is the 2024 Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellow at the Charles Perkins Centre , receiving $100,000 to support the next 12 months as she embarks on her third collection of essays. Coming out of her experience of COVID, the collection will examine future perspectives on science, society and selfhood.
Now in its eighth year, the Fellowship is a pioneering initiative that enables leading Australian creative writers to navigate the complex health and social challenges our world faces, alongside global health researchers and educators at the University of Sydney.
“The residency at the Charles Perkins Centre has always been appealing to me – I’ve applied every year since it started in 2016,” Wright said. “As a writer I’ve had a long-held interest in science and medicine, and the interconnections between society, science and selfhood. I am also fascinated by how new and emerging ideas find traction and become embedded in our lives.”
Acclaimed poet and essayist Fiona Wright is the 2024 Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellow. Photo: Michael Amendolia.
Wright is renowned for the deeply personal revelations in her work, detailing her own experiences with eating disorders, autism, and disability, a practice she wishes to continue during her fellowship.
“My work has always been interested in the possibilities of personal stories, as a powerful means of building empathy and awareness, and exploring the ways in which big-picture issues are experienced and felt across our individual lives.”
Her anticipated third collection of essays arose out of a series of questions she encountered during the pandemic and is still grappling with in its aftermath.
“After the pandemic, I became really interested in the stories that we tell ourselves about the future and the ways we imagine and expect it to play out,” Wright said. “In the first lockdown, there was a lot of grief and confusion. A lot of people around me were saying things like ‘this isn’t supposed to happen’ or ‘this isn’t following my plan’ and it blew my mind. I've never been a planner or thought that you have much control over your future.”
Drawing from research from a wide range of disciplines as well as personal stories and lived experiences, Wright’s idea for the essay collection is to explore the narratives we carry that shape our expectations for our lives and of the world; assumptions that are often so ingrained and familiar, sometimes they’re impossible for us to see until they’re shattered.
“Living with chronic illness and receiving my autism diagnosis in 2020, right at a time when the world suddenly became unavailable, upended some of my long-held narratives about myself and my future,” she said. “The narratives I had absorbed about medicine – about its infallibility and objectivity, and about control – proved flawed, and the loss of these narratives affected me deeply. Watching other people begin to grapple with this kind of loss over these last years has been a profound experience.
“I became fascinated by ideas about the future – both on a personal and societal level – where they come from, how they are understood by neuroscience and psychology, or affected by history and cultural norms, what they might mean and what we might need instead, in a time of ever-increasing precarity and existential threat.”
Professor Stephen Simpson and Judy Harris. Photo: Michael Amendolia.
It's the second time a poet and essayist has been selected for the residency, after Sarah Holland-Batt in 2021.
“I am drawn to essays and poems as a form because they allow for many-angled examinations of complex questions that resist tidy answers,” Wright said. “So much of my work as a poet is just me in a room, working through the thoughts in my head. It’s been incredible to receive feedback from previous applications and now financial support from the Charles Perkins Centre to be part of something more collaborative through this year’s Fellowship.”
The 2024 Fellowship is the final year that Professor Stephen Simpson , Academic Director of the Charles Perkins Centre, will be involved before he moves to another role at the University .
“Fiona is an outstanding and acclaimed writer with an impressive body of work that is insightful, powerful and moving,” Professor Simpson said.
“It makes me incredibly proud that the Writer-in-Residence program, generously funded by our donor and patron Judy Harris, is highly regarded by Australia’s creative writer community. The transformative Fellowship has greatly enriched the Charles Perkins Centre, the University of Sydney and our wider community, and has supported many of Australia’s premier writers.
"I am delighted that Fiona is joining us and I look forward to working with her as she explores some of the great health challenges and questions that shape us and our society, particularly through times of uncertainty and upheaval."
Fiona Wright’s writing has been published in various literary journals, newspapers, art catalogues and magazines across the world. Her debut collection of poetry, Knuckled (2011) received the Dame Mary Gilmore Award in 2012, and her book of essays Small Acts of Disappearance: Essays in Hunger (2015) won the Kibble Award, the University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award in the Queensland Literary Awards, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards for non-fiction in 2016. Her latest book of essays, The World Was Whole (2018) was longlisted for the Stella Prize in 2019 and the Nib Award for research, and shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Prize.
Read more about the Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the Charles Perkins Centre.
Hero photo: Professor Stephen Simpson, Fiona Wright and Judy Harris in the Charles Perkins Centre. Photo: Michael Amendolia.
Liv clayworth.
Inaugural charles perkins centre director to step down, lech blaine named charles perkins centre 2023 writer in residence, charles perkins centre writers in residence at the sydney writers' festival.
Democracy challenged
Credit... Photo illustration by Matt Chase
Supported by
By David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt is a senior writer at The Times who won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Great Recession.
The United States has experienced deep political turmoil several times before over the past century. The Great Depression caused Americans to doubt the country’s economic system. World War II and the Cold War presented threats from global totalitarian movements. The 1960s and ’70s were marred by assassinations, riots, a losing war and a disgraced president.
These earlier periods were each more alarming in some ways than anything that has happened in the United States recently. Yet during each of those previous times of tumult, the basic dynamics of American democracy held firm. Candidates who won the most votes were able to take power and attempt to address the country’s problems.
The current period is different. As a result, the United States today finds itself in a situation with little historical precedent. American democracy is facing two distinct threats, which together represent the most serious challenge to the country’s governing ideals in decades.
The first threat is acute: a growing movement inside one of the country’s two major parties — the Republican Party — to refuse to accept defeat in an election.
The violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress , meant to prevent the certification of President Biden’s election, was the clearest manifestation of this movement, but it has continued since then. Hundreds of elected Republican officials around the country falsely claim that the 2020 election was rigged. Some of them are running for statewide offices that would oversee future elections, potentially putting them in position to overturn an election in 2024 or beyond.
“There is the possibility, for the first time in American history, that a legitimately elected president will not be able to take office,” said Yascha Mounk, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University who studies democracy.
Senate representation by state.
Residents of less populated states like Wyoming and North Dakota, who are disproportionately white, have outsize influence.
1 voter in Wyoming
has similar representation as
1 voter in North Dakota
6 voters in Connecticut
7 voters in Alabama
18 voters in Michigan
59 voters in California
has similar
representation as
There were about twice as many districts where a Democratic House candidate won by at least 50 percentage points as there were districts where a Republican candidate won by as much.
Landslide (one candidate won
by at least 50 percentage points)
Barbara Lee
Calif. District 13
Jerry Nadler
N.Y. District 10
Diana DeGette
Colo. District 1
Donald Payne Jr.
N.J. District 10
Jesús García
Ill. District 4
Landslide (one candidate won by at least 50 percentage points)
Supreme Court appointments
Presidential election winners
Popular vote
Electoral College
Party that nominated a justice
David H. Souter (until 2009)
Clarence Thomas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (until 2020)
Stephen G. Breyer (until 2022)
John G. Roberts Jr.
Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Sonia Sotomayor
Elena Kagan
Neil M. Gorsuch
Brett M. Kavanaugh
Amy Coney Barrett
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Supreme Court
Presidential election
nominated a justice
Souter (until 2009)
Ginsburg (until 2020)
Breyer (until 2022)
The share of Republican state legislators who have taken steps, as of May 2022, to discredit or overturn the 2020 presidential election results
Pennsylvania
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Sociological Book "The Culture of Fear" by Barry Glassner. The book "The Culture of Fear" presents many examples of the sources of fear in the United States. The peddlers of panic in the country inflate statistics to pursue their causes and goals. Dissecting the American Society: Baltimore, Fear and the Fight for Life.
After going through a few essays on Fear, you will be in a position to compose excellent papers in the future. Hook Examples for Fear Essays "The Anatomy of Fear"" Hook "Fear is a powerful and primal emotion that has shaped human survival for millennia. Explore the intricate anatomy of fear, from its psychological triggers to its physical ...
You can also find more Essay Writing articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more. Long and Short Essays on Fear for Students and Kids in English. We are providing students with samples of a long essay of 500 words on the topic Fear and a short essay of 150 words on the topic Fear for reference.
The Causes and Effects of Fear. Fear is one of the most general emotions that we as humans encounter in life. As children develop over time, their fear does too. Many people experience fear daily, whether it is a severe anxiety, or being afraid of something unknown. The most common definition of fear is an unpleasant emotion coursing through ...
In this article, we will explore 114 fear essay topic ideas and examples that you can use to explore how fear influences our lives and behaviors. The role of fear in decision-making. How fear can hinder personal growth. Overcoming the fear of failure. The fear of rejection and its impact on relationships. Fear of the unknown: how to navigate ...
Fear Essay. Sort By: Page 1 of 50 - About 500 essays. Decent Essays. The Fear Of Fear : Fear And Fear. 847 Words; 4 Pages; The Fear Of Fear : Fear And Fear. Fear is an unpleasant feeling which is caused by the awareness of danger according to me. It is something that everyone has to manage no matter what; fear will be fear.
Get original essay. My biggest fear, which I'll be talking about in this 300-word essay, is of large water bodies. It includes the idea of being miles away from the shore, surrounded by sharks, whales, giant jellyfish, crabs, and other deep-sea creatures. I'm not sure when or how this fear developed, but it became very prominent during my ...
Table of Contents. Webster's dictionary defines fear as "an unpleasant, sometimes strong emotion caused by an anticipation or awareness of danger" or "anxious concern" Fear is a feeling that causes agitation and anxiety mostly caused by presence or imminence of danger. It is a state or condition marked by feeling of agitation or anxiety.
Unpacking the Influence of Fear on Our Daily Lives. In today's society, fear plays a huge role and influences many decisions of many people. We see this everywhere, politics, media and even our daily lives. In the article, "3 Roles Fear Plays In Our Lives", written by Donna Labermeier, fear is talked about as...
Grizzle, Eric. Exploring Fear and Freud's The Uncanny. Master of Arts (English-Creative Writing), May 2007, 103 pp., references, 7 titles. Fear is one of the oldest and most basic of human emotions. In this thesis, I will explore the topic of fear in relation to literature, both a staple of the horror genre as well as a device in
Most essays on fear describe fear as an emotion that arises in situations of the threat to the biological or social existence of an individual and is aimed at a source of real or imagined danger. Fear essays note that fear varies in a fairly wide range: concern, dread, fear, horror, phobia, etc. If the source of the danger is uncertain or ...
500 Words Essay on Fear Introduction. Fear is a universal human experience, an essential part of our biological makeup that has evolved over millions of years. It is a complex emotion that can be both protective and paralyzing, serving as a warning signal for danger while also potentially hindering personal growth and exploration. This essay ...
Turning Fear into Confidence—A Personal Essay. October 14, 2020. Facing obstacles throughout your life is inevitable, and the obstacles you overcome can define who you are as a person. Not only will this build character and self-confidence, it will show others how strong you remained and inspire them to overcome their own challenges.
The most common fear in intractable conflict is the fear of losing one's identity and/or security. Individuals and groups identify themselves in certain ways (based on culture, language, race, religion, etc.) and threats to those identities arouse very real fears -- fears of extinction, fears of the future, fears of oppression, etc.
Another unique attribute of the Essays regarding fear is that the text is written primarily about the author. Footnote 4 Thus, the work could be considered as mere anecdotal evidence, but Montaigne's description of his own fear is used as a springboard to analyse the phenomenon of fear from different philosophical perspectives in a novel non ...
Peer Pressure and Fear in "The Dentist and the Crocodile" by Dahl. Aging Process: The Fear of Getting Older. Opportunities to Overcome Your Fear. Fear of the Unknown. Defining Fear and Courage. "Harrison Bergeron": The Fear of Socialism. Fear of Crime and Crime Rates.
The essay "How I Have Challenged My Fear" is a good piece of writing that could be improved with some adjustments. While the essay is well-organized, there are a few areas where the focus could be sharpened. For example, the introduction could be strengthened to more clearly convey the author's thesis.
Thesis For Fear. 1053 Words5 Pages. Fear can be healthy, but also deadly to the human race. Fear makes people not do things that can harm them, which makes them stay alive longer. Not only does it keep people alive, it can also kill as well. Fearing something and being frightened of an object or thing can turn into a panic situation, which can ...
According to the Oxford dictionary, fear is "an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm", but this definition is only one of many to define the term of 'fear '. Fear is events that we perceive to be dangerous to ourselves and to others. Fear is something that everyone possesses, and when conquered, turns into ...
Fear Essay Thesis - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. This document discusses the challenges of writing a thesis on the complex topic of fear. It notes that capturing fear's essence through meticulous research, analysis, and writing is difficult. It then offers the solution of hiring an expert writer ...
adjusting to a new form of writing—for example, first year college writing, papers in a new field of study, or longer forms than you are used to (a long research paper, a senior thesis, a master's thesis, a dissertation) (Hjortshoj 56-76). writing for a reader or readers who have been overly critical or demanding in the past.
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In her essay, Helene Radtke, a 38-year-old wife of a German soldier, describes her "divine duty to forget about all my household chores and to perform my service to my homeland." [ Insight, in ...
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To overcome fear, develop faith or non-attachment. Start with some of the small steps and very firstly concentrate on increasing the flow of physical energy and do some deep breathing. Then utilise your increased energy for overcoming the fear. Think of fear like a wildfire in the brain. Stomp out the small problems right away before they have ...
Acclaimed Australian poet, editor and critic Fiona Wright is the 2024 Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellow at the Charles Perkins Centre, receiving $100,000 to support the next 12 months as she embarks on her third collection of essays.Coming out of her experience of COVID, the collection will examine future perspectives on science, society and selfhood.
The United States faces two distinct challenges, the movement by Republicans who refuse to accept defeat in an election and a growing disconnect between political power and public opinion.