I like this observation. Your signature line references keeping a population in check through fear of monsters. A "leader" can easily manage his flock through fearmongering, as easily as a comic pulls laughs through potty humor; both are hollow and of a much lower order than their potential.
This comes right back to the original point of this thread! Fearmongering is no more than a form of hard power and, though a necessary tool, hard power does not endure on its own. It's time to move beyond the legacy of management through paranoia. I grew up fearing the "Red Menace" and preparing to "Kill a Commie for Mommy." Artists like Sting cut through that nonsense with songs that told the truth about the Other Side, like "I hope the Russians love their children, too."
I'm pro-intervention, at the right time for the right reasons. Of course, that sounds like non-speak, but like Sting it gets at the truth. Fearmongering made it easy to prop up tin-pots...and those decades have left us with a cumbersome alternate legacy to live down: that of a meddling, uncaring, manipulative power interested in taking and promising and never following through. The future of international interdependence is being revealed day-by-day. In the new reality such a reputation is a severe liability.
Genuine smart power will always consider national best interests, but with more forthright and transparent (and, dare I say, humble?) efforts we can disentangle the snarl of this reputation while actually contributing to local improvements and corresponding, general Improvement.
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