Here' is Dr. Fisher's latest teaching video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UKmn9PEr98

I have long been interested in the fate of children in our societies and their enmeshment in cultures of fear--that is, being scared to death, being made to feel so fragile, and being unable to find a resiliency to meet the demanding (often oppressive) challenges of the day and their future. The 21st century is not going to likely be a pretty one, not for a long time that is. How can the path of Fearlessness help? How can we on the FM ning help? Let's have more discussion about children here and the nature and role of fear and fearlessness in their lives. 

One cultural critic has a good short summary of some of the issues Gen Z especially is facing... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvrMNDv6iYU

Not that I agree with everything Johnathan Haidt says about society, but he has some good points to consider. 

Hello fellow travellers and curious learners. Every now and then, since the beginning of the FM ning in 2015, there are people from all kinds of backgrounds, and cultures, and religious orientations, who visit this site/community. Some of them want to promote a particular leader or leaders that they follow. I think that is fine to a point, and yet, I am vigilant to tell everyone that please remember and respect the purpose of this FM ning and the responsibility you have as a FM ning member: 

Better, and more critically, understanding the role of fear and fearlessness in our lives and world is critical to healthy sustainable life.

 

-------------------------------

Therefore, if anyone on the FM ning crosses the line of intention and only wants to proselytize only one orientation or perspective on reality and is not directly engaging the purpose (mission) of the FM ning community, I will give them one warning--and if they persist I will pull their membership and close their entry to use this site. All moderators of serious ning communities have to do this to ensure integrity of their ning mission. Note: I pay over $300 US funds to keep this ning going (which I barely can afford), and to serve the FM ning community and I want that respected by its users. BTW, this policy of proselytization here applies to yours truly as well. Thanks. 

 

-Michael (FM ning founder and host)

Some psychiatrists, for example, are very concerned in recent years with the fear-based (hyper-)polarization of American society (but also elsewhere). I've scanned an article you might want to check out on this, and noticed they used the word Fear Matrix at one point, a concept I believe is also useful for individual and cultural therapia. 

Anyways, here's a link to this 2021 article: "We must depolarize America now if we want to avoid a repeat of the past four years—or worse. From the vantage point of history and psychiatry, we offer a set of solutions to America’s polarization dilemma." 

-----

Note: I did my Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction (UBC) in 2003 on the 'Fear' Matrix, check out: https://fearlessnessmovement.ning.com/photos/my-dissertation-cover 

A leader of "Fearlessness Studies" --and an "expert", is what I have recently been called by Dr. Barrett, March 29/23:

For my latest radio interview with founder and host of Truth Jihad Radio, Dr. Kevin Barrett, as we discuss fearlessness and Marianne Williamson and her 2024 campaign for president of the USA (start at 15:34): 

https://www.unz.com/audio/kbarrett_peter-myers-re-solves-mh-370-r-michael-fisher-on-political-fearlessness-marianne-williamson-2024/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=552u7yqT-YM

I have followed the sociologist Dr. Frank Furedi's writings (mostly his fear writing) since 1997. I like a good deal of his critiques. Yet, I strongly am not in agreement, for a lot of reasons, with a lot of it--including, and in particular, his biased ideological (materialist = secularist =  exclusionist = traditionalist-modernist) leanings of interpreting the relational, social-cultural and political world. He gets quite reductionist, hyperbolic and extremist at times.

I haven't listened to this particular talk per se by him, but it is always worth a listen. He researches his topics well. He thinks independently and he challenges the stataus quo. 

For the record, I cite his work often in my publications. Sadly, over the years, he has chosen not to cite my work or dialogue with me on the fear topic or education topic (which he also critiques Education often in ways I find stereotypying if not fearmongering itself). 

----------

Note and Questioning: I am thinking of how a Fearlessness Paradigm is so different in many ways from the Fear Paradigm that Furedi works with in his perspective on society and what is going on. His corrective to the Fear Problem? He is a libertarian (politically and ideologically) as far as I can tell, though I do not think he actually says this explicitly anywhere. He is definitely not in favor of government or any authority body taking over the parent's role with their children on certain interior and moral aspects of their development. He is kind of conservative that way, as an educational thinker. That said, I wonder if the very language of calling a phenomenon life excessive fear, or "culture of fear" (as he also writes about) a "Fear Epidemic" is actually useful and to what end and who does it serve? 

In a Fearlessness Paradigm there is more depth and breadth to conceptualizing the Fear Problem than Furedi wants to make out. And, although that is a much larger topic and critique, suffice it to say here in this blog response that maybe we would benefit more as a culture if we called what he is referring to as a "Timidity Epidemic" or a similar term even less flattering a "Cowardice Epidemic." From within the core of the Fearlessness Paradigm of critical analysis and intervention, the role of the Rebel, and Sacred Warrior (and Magician) archetypes is important in my theorizing of 'what humans need to recover'--and the warrior-spirit is a sacred notion that is able to overcome the cowardice dynamics of a "culture of fear" in ways that I think bring about true emancipatory implications. The latter, I do not see in Furedi's philosophy, theories, historical understanding and in his diagnoses and general interventions of how to improve society.  

The early developmental years are crucial for children when it comes to their relationship with fear/anxiety and other aspects of their innate and conditioned life-orientation to: Is Life Trustable or Is Life Untrustable? [1] There are more people now a days starting to ask questions about what the impact of COVID-19 pandemic (shock and awe and isolation) had on this new crop of COVID children (and their care-givers)? I have not done research on this but I have heard more than one person in the field of education and daycare field talking about this connection. Are the young children especially (but not only) really impacted more negatively by COVID-19 than we can even imagine as adults? Are these a more disregulated and mistrustful, and anxious group of children now who are going to grow up and create a whole lot more problems (and costs) for society, from within families, daycares, schools and beyond? I'm calling this the COVID-Fear-Bubble phenomenon. OF course, it is just speculation at this point. 

On the recovery and rehabilitation side of things, however, there are some good stories of pro-active interventions into children's well being in relationship to fear, for e.g., John Coleman, of the Apocatastasis Institute just published his summary of an article recently published on offering various nature interventions with children to help them overcome some of their fear of nature (and of life itself, perhaps)--see the BEE BRAVE presentation he gives: https://www.bitchute.com/video/P5YqcYT5niyU/

Let's keep the conversation going about fear/anxiety [2] its positive and negative sides, including the impacts of COVID-19 especially and how can we teach not just about being braver, but being more courageous, being more fearless. I have a great deal of experience and research and thoughts about this connection of a spectrum of means in how to live life in a better relationship to fear than being so paralyzed and harmed by its excesses, individually and collectively. So, also check out The Fearology Institute happenings. 

Note: 

1. Life-orientation education, as I am calling it, has many levels of evidence and reality, but there's at least an important one in Erik Erikson's emotional/affect development research and model puts "Trust vs. Mistrust"  (or Love vs. Fear) at the foundational base of child development as universal. My colleague Four Arrows (Dr. Don T. Jacobs) has more or less offered an analogous conceptualization with overlapping meanings and implications in his worldview education distinction. My other fearwork for decades has played with these ideas but only very recently am I seeing how important this is in bringing a universal ethical basis to education--and, philosophically, arguably it is a telos of education..

2. For a good video on fear/anxiety in the individual and coping strategies and the way society conditions us, especially in parenting, and by offering children distractions and other means of "isolation"--there are chronic problems that accrue, especially with the "attachment" bonding ecology, and this is where fear/anxiety will grow, and even panic patterning that will affect people for life--see talk on this by Dr. Gabor Mate' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39RyGEVRbWk

Some people have asked about my most updated cvRMF2024.doc (professional academic resume). So, I will make it available here. I have also an CVArt RMF.DOC

Note 1. WIKIPEDIA buffs out there, you may want to create a Wikipedia page on my name and/or "Fearlessness Movement," or "In Search of Fearlessness Project". This still needs to be done in order to recognize this fearwork for historical purposes in a vast encyclopedia form. [p.s. I'd be happy to help organize this but someone else will have to take it on as a project and ; contact: r.michaelfisher52 [at] gmail.com

Note 2. Also for Wikipedia there is a need for pages on "Fearology" ; some other links on the FM ning show some of the early work I did in 2015- onward trying to start a Fearlessness Movement Wikipedia entry; go to for e.g.: https://fearlessnessmovement.ning.com/blog/new-wikipedia-entry-fearism

and https://fearlessnessmovement.ning.com/forum/fearlessness-movement-wikipedia-version-summary

A student of the eminent Rollo May, here is my FearTalk with Kirk J. Schneider, exploring topics of interest to how to create a better democracy, and its relationship to dialogue, to fear/anxiety/terror of existence, etc. 

[note: the percentages, are given based on testing values, and they approximate the % of USA population roughly operating in that worldview] 

With our current "Culture Wars" re: Value and values, and political debates on which is the better way to go for society--there, is a need to step back and look at the bigger picture of value-memes (as one form of worldview analysis [1]). The diagram above is an integral theory mapping of 3 major worldviews (or value-memes). This diagram is useful on many levels, although, I understand it would need a much more nuanced discussion and teaching around what are wordviews and/or value-memes (in Spiral Dynamics theory and Integral Theory). That said, it is still a good quick map for seeing what has been going on in the world of conflicts, "Culture Wars" and "Paradigm Wars" etc. in the last 50 years or so. There is a dangerous heating up in conflicts between these worldviews. There is fear-based thinking and values in each of these worldviews shown here, and there is also good healthy non-fear-based thinking and values. The issue is understanding perspectives that they each bring to society and our problems. How will we work with this conflict and fear in each of these? I find that a really interesting and serious issue, and I have studied Integral Theory for over 40 years. 

The next diagram shows a fourth worldview (value-meme) called "Integral" (perspective)--that is, where "Developmentalists" as thinkers are attempting to analyze and solve the world's big problems from. This is where I've situated my thinking and theory, i.e., the location of Fearlessness (as aperspectival-integral consciousness or Fear Management System-7). This next diagram shows the way to approach dealing with all the differences and conflicts, and similarities, in the other worldviews (value-memes), and how an integral-developmentalist approach is probably the best way to go overall--which, would be non-fear-based. A larger topic... but here is the diagram offered: 

Acknowledgements

Thanks to those at the Institute for Cultural Evolution for the summary diagram above, from their website. 

Endnotes

1. Note, that worldview analysis comes in many varieties and this is only one way shown here. Another powerful critical postcolonialist worldview theory is proposed by Four Arrows (Dr. D. T. Jacobs) where there are only two meta-worldviews operating "Dominant worldview" (global and Western)--and, "Indigenous worldview." The latter, as Four Arrows argues is really the only foundational worldview that offers a healthy, sane and sustainable worldview. Developmentalists (integralists) typically avoid integrating such a critique. Four Arrows agrees, as would many integralists, that "fearlessness" is the basis of the worldview that is propogated as emancipatory. 

This is front page of the Fearology Center, my newest venture and collaboration as I join with John Coleman, founder of Apocatastasis Institute for the Humanities in Connecticut, USA. For a brief description of the Fearology Center as part of my TFI venture, go to: Fearology Center and go to: for my Staff (Bio.) page R. Michael Fisher. (contact: r.michaelfisher52 [at] gmail.com)

Take a look at the APOC Institute while browsing as it has some interesting things going on in the alternative higher education field. I'll keep you all informed on the FM ning as things progress with this new venture. 

Over 20 yrs ago, a really important work on "Fear" appeared out of Europe by a Hungarian sociologist [1]. His name Eleme'r Hankiss. This book sat on my shelves for nearly 20 years as well, because when it first arrived, I was looking at it in a superficial way and it seemed that the focus was on a study of fears in human history related to religious, mythological, anthropological, philosophical, and literary arts and tradtions--which included indepth study of fears in jokes, plays, myths, religious beliefs and symbols, housing and cities, shopping malls and rationality etc. 

Recently, having pulled it off my shelf, I began to realize what a gem of a socioogical study of fear (which is actually quite interdisciplinary, even transdisciplinary somewhat)--was going on and that the author was creating his own variant theory of fear/anxiety (used interchangeably) to explain the entire civilization process--and, he develops that theory in this book starting with a great synthesis of sociologists and anthropologists writings and how they support his theory but that the major theorists in those disciplines tended not to talk explicitly about fear as core motivator for humanity and civilization but they implied it was so. He discusses this as a problem itself in that fear thus remains hidden more or less when it is so critically important to study and know its massive influences. I agree. I agree. I agree. I and many other fearists have been saying this for decades. 

So, Hankiss is no longer alive (died in 2015 in Hungary). He had written a fascinating book also with implications for Fear Studies in 2006 [6], though I have not found a copy to read yet. But this "Fears and Symbols" is more accessible and lays the ground for his critical thinking of fear within the symbolic interactionist tradition of critical theorizing in sociology. He is critical of the psychological schools of thought for often disregarding the social sciences overall and how they have theorized about fear and motivation and civilization processes. Ultimately, Hankiss marks a huge territory of understanding that fear within the social sphere of relations, is always a power in movement and constituted for a longer shelf life. Those are my terms on what happens to fear as it is phenomenologically passed in and through the social symbolic order of knowledge making (and ontology itself). Symbolic Fear in other words is made to last longer on the shelf (shelves) of human experiencing because it has potent creative and constructive (and destructive) capacities that regimes of power in history wish to manipulate--and, that's when history of fear becomes really intriguing and demanding. That's when Fear Study becomes very demanding. Only existential philosophy and psychological or theological discourses on fear really miss far too much information and phenomenological reality, says Hankiss, and I agree--especially with the construct of fear--that is symbolic fear. 

I highly recommend this text. And, of course, there are a lot of areas where I think it needs upgrading and improvements, but I would label it a proto-fearist textbook essential to the new Fear Studies I have proposed for decades. From what I can tell, this book is little known around the world nor is it cited by most authors who write and/or theorize about fear. 

Notes:

1. Former Director of the Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and fomer fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford. 

2. His two major books: Hankiss, E. (2001). Fears and symbols: An introduction to the study of western civilization. Central European University Press. and Hankiss, E. (2006). The toothpaste of immortality: Self-construction in the consumer age. John Hopkins University Press. 

For the entire speech of her announcement go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onSa2UF8_kI

There isn't another leader, not in the century, maybe not ever, that speaks the philosophical and ethical wisdom [1] of Williamson in the political sphere. It is a good example of the spirit of fearlessness in action--in the political landscape. 

To see her political policies platform go to:marianne2024.com

Endnotes

1. In particular, I am referring to her long interest in the "Love vs. Fear Problem"--of which, I have researched and written and published on for decades. This is no small philosophical-theological and psychological problem, with all the cultural and social and economic aspects of it so relevant today. 

Hey, wanted to share my latest video from my Youtube channel entitled "Marianne Williamson 2024 Has Started: Leader of Nonviolence" 

Marianne has officially announced her candidacy to run for President of the USA in 2024. I talk about a number of qualities she brings to the political sphere but also beyond that in terms of her emancipatory project for humanity and this planet. She is a very unique leader. I am most taken with her putting "fear" and "love" at the center of her philosophy, spirituality and politics. 

I also share my new project to support this movement, she represents, and have named it the Canadian Coalition for Marianne 2024. 

Some existential theorists and practitioners (e.g., therapists) have argued for a positive kind of anxiety, vs. a destructive kind that paralyzes and kills us. My long interest in these discourses on anxiety (another word for fear)--is a troubled one, where I have critiques of the way the existentialists deal with fear and this binary. That said, you can check out this quote (from a brand new book by Schneider) on his viewpoint--short extract below: 

[note: "Becker" is highlighted, as he is my favorite of the existentialists, and that is Ernest Becker--of whom, was the philosophical 

thinker beneath the 1980's social psychology project of Terror Management Theory, the latter also well worth investigating if you 

are at all interested to know more about "fear" in the social realm of behavior.] 

[quote from p. 5, from Schneider, K. J. (2023). Life-enhancing anxiety: Key to a sane world. University Professors Press.]

Addendum: 

 I/we have been preparing for your birth. I stand in awe and anticipation of this mystery that is unfolding. A spectrum of fear studies seems to be touching into the essence of the Fearlessness movement, I do believe.

wrote, Janet Sheppard, July 18, 2018 responding to TFI. 

Some of you may know, or not, that since 2018 I had founded The Fearology Institute (TFI) as another of my string of venture possibilities to get the fire lit beneath people to take seriously that we have to better figure out a relationship with Fear if we ever want to help this world get out of the ditch it has been riding and crashing in for many many years. Of course, some will say just add Love (some say, Courage) to the world and it will improve. Philosophically, that Love to be really effective has to be dialectically also based on not just good intentions but a really deep study and education in Fear. 

So, founding The Fearology Institute was one way, my latest venture, to attempt to offer a university grade education, for starters, in Fearology--which is the foundational basis of a systematic study of the nature and role of fear in human evolution. Fearology = the study of fear in relation to life. So, that's the simple definition but then things get really complex as one deep dives into that topic and takes seriously that fearology ought to be as familiar and prevalent in its impacts as biology, psychology or any other disciplined way of researching and understanding something about reality--about ourselves. For a quick overview of TFI program, see my latest talk on it in some detail at: Becoming a Fearologist

[Note: the 3 streams of TFI originally: (a) scholarly and research, (b) professional development, (c) activism; and, a 4th and 5th I would like to add in this new iteration of TFI is (d) parents/caregivers and (e) students/learners. 

That's how important Fear is as a topic, subject--and, yes, it is equally all about ourselves--about our own psyche, and collective psyche and our own social-cultural self, our conditioning, our entrancements in the malaise of politics, economics, our worldviews, and all aspects of living today and how are we going to live in the future in a sane, healthy and sustainable way.

Fearology is a 'new' way to study this all and yes, it ought to be legitimated as just as important as any other study. It ought to be in all highschool curriculum as an option, it ought to have diploma and degree programs all over the world in post-secondary education. But even beyond that, it ought to be available also in popularized forms of education online, in our communities in many forms. You can see this is a huge project I envisioned. 

But reality is, since 2018, it has been a hard pitch to convince people of this need for humanity. I'm roused again, and again, to attempt to share it with folks and ask for support in getting this going--rubber hitting the pavement--and having a real impact. The diagram above is a screen shot from the resources page of what is available on "Fearology" that I have put together for years, to access those free documents and youtube channel presentations on fearology,

go to: https://prism.ucalgary.ca/discover?query=fearology

Let's keep on this topic and venture possibility, and have discussions, and see what is possible. Of course, you can also have critiques and pushback, etc., I am all open ears to this, when it is intended for correction and growth. I just know, that a great potential sits waiting for a world/consciousness/worldview ready to 'see' what I see--and, what is potentially a new field of study, profession and practice for those from all walks of life. Contact me: r.michaelfisher52@gmail.com 

The FM ning is also a good platform for discussion. If you search in the upper left box of the FM ning, "fearology" you will also find a whole lot of material on TFI and other fearology posts there. There's no shortage of readily (free) materials available to learn from and explore. I'm ready to lght the fire again, but I can't do it alone. 

Endorsement(s)

 For an excellent debate of two powerful women thinkers: Marianne Williamson and former Senator Nina Turner go at it on stage: 

As you may know, Marianne Williamson has long been one of my research interests, and most recently she is potentially going to jump into the 2024 Presidential election. I'll keep you posted. There are many resources on the Internet you can search out for more information. But, let it be said, once again, she is the only political leader today, or perhaps ever, who has brought the Love vs. Fear philosophy of motivation into the political leadership domain--and, she has done this systematically, and it determines her ethical positioning and her course towards a "politics of love." As a Fearlessness Movement member, myself, and as a fearologist and fear educator, there is great optimism in this move on her part to take worldclass leadership on--because that is an incredibly difficult and challenging role. I ask FM ning members to consider giving her a listen at least, and if so moved, to really support her in her rise in politics--for, it will affect the world, not just the USA. 

Historical Background for the Project(s)

For a few decades I've had an impulse and vision and budding passion to make a grand synthesis of all humankind's knowledge on Fear. After various fits and starts at different forms of research and writing, none ever published, I saw that I had not the resources or energy and time and space in my life to accomplish this. I sought out other's to help with this project and envisioned several volumes would be needed to cover the topic. 

By the time I had finished my graduate school years (1998-2003), it struck me that I just had to publish a compendium of (at least) all the theories on Fear, and make some kind of classification of them, if not some critique. I began that research and building more forms for arranging this material but quickly, again, I realized it would be an exhaustive project to do alone and I even wondered at that point, with less enthusiasm than when I was younger, IF such a project would even been read or appreciated by the readers of the day. I concluded also that it would end up being quite a "negative" sounding set of volumes--as Fear is still perceived mostly negatively by humanity. So, I put the idea away and after several experiences working with a shawoman in Vancouver, doing healing work, a vision came to me. It would be better to research and write a compendium on what the world teachings are on FEARLESSNESS. Thus, a few years later, I published an ambitious (albeit, not exhaustive) volume, The World's Fearlessness Teachings [1]. 

That was 13 years ago. It's the best resource available for humanity on Fearlessness as a topic but also on my theorizing. I was less negative in outlook with addressing the Fear Problem humanity is facing and not well dealing with. The book title itself seemed more positive--fearlessness. All those things led to my great expectation for a great book to be recognized and utilized by humankind. This did not happen. No one has ever done a systematic in depth book review. And, the disappointments go on and on since it was published. I was not working in an academic institution, so as an independent scholar with no extra money to mass advertise this, and the publisher did little in distribution, I was left with a book that sold few copies and was 'dead in the water'. Which, didn't mean I was completely dispirited. Always, in the back of my mind, and I mention it in the Preface of The World's Fearlessness Teachings, that someday, I will write a companion two-set volumes on (a) The World's Fear Teachings -- a version of a kind of Summa Fearolgical (playing off the grand project of St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century with his Summa Theologica) and, (b) a friendly smaller popular version of both the essence findings of The World's Fearlessness Teachings and The World's Fear Teachings. 

Books of World Great Ideas

The World's Fear Teachings, encyclopedic kind of enterprise I initiated, soon ended, re-started [2] ...and again ran out of 'gas' at several points over these years. And still it is not near able to hobble out of my old files and basement and see the light of day. I realized I would need several assistant researchers and secretaries to help with this project and preferrably some big publisher interested too, whom would provide the pre-publication funding and support to make this come about. Of course, I dream of some angel donor coming along and paying for such a massive project. I have not found any of these supports yet. 

It was only this past month that I found a good book to read, which is an intellectual autobiography by Adler, entitled Mortimer J. Adler: Philosopher At Large, by Mortimer Adler (1902-1976) [3]. Adler inspired me and he shared about St. Thomas Aquinas's massive project to summarize all the great knowledge on certain topics in the 13th century work, Summa Theologica. Adler had an encyclopedic mind for collecting and organizing, classifying and analyzing human knowledge. It made me think more vividly that I have in my own humble way being trying to construct a Summa Fearologica (a term that I just coined while thinking of writing this blog). The essence of Aquinas, and then the modern Adler, was to validate there are great ideas of universal interest and wisdom to pass on from generations, knowledge from grand scope and depth, and summarized for others to read and study and apply to their current times. I definitely have always wanted to do that with the Great Idea: Fear (and Fearlessness). 

Back in 2004 when Corey Robin, a political historian at NYU, published his book Fear: The History of an Idea [4], this notion of "fear" being cast as an "idea" and not merely as an emotion, feeling (as psychology and philosophy and theology have done for centuries)--was very radical and I attempted to have conversations with Robin over emails but soon that was not mutually fruitful and my ambitions to be supported by someone in academia fell off again. I yet, knew that there was something there to continue to promote and re-think about. So, in the end, that is what I am putting forth to the world once again. Writing this blog to let you all know. The Summa Fearologica is real in my imaginary and I'd like to pass that on to others. Someday, maybe this will manifest, before I die or after. 

Addendum 1: 

In my current research/writing with Prof. Arie Kizel (Univ. of Haifa, Israel), we are going to attempt to write on the topic of "pedagogy of fear" as a concept (big idea) and analyze it. I have proposed to him, with his agreement to pursue it, that we include a section of that book on pedagothealogy. This large awkward sounding term is my formation of a pedagogy + theology perspective toward the nature and role of fear. Stayed tuned for more on that venture. 

Addendum 2: 

Do we need a 'Fear' Bible? [go to my article several years ago: https://fearlessnessmovement.ning.com/blog/big-d-discourse-do-we-need-a-fear-bible

Endnotes

1. Fisher, R. M. (2010). The world's fearlessness teachings: A critical integral approach to fear management/education for the 21st century. Lanham, MD: University Press of American/Rowman & Littlefied. 

2. I have never, since late 1989 found any publisher in the wide-world interested in publishing my "fear" books until 2022. However, when I found a publisher for my book The Fear Problematique--a book specifically dedicated to philosophy of education in a culture of fear today, it was a first of such sincere interest.. Thanks to Information Age Publishing, this book ought to come out on the shelves in the end of 2023 if all goes well. As far as the world's fear teachings, the most I got done was the rudimentary beginning of what I was calling The 'Fear' Encyclopedia. And it stalled; but I did publish in 1998 very small version of a 'Fear' Encyclopedia, which I self-published just as photocopied text and a cheap spiral bound booklet. This latter book really should have been entitled a 'Fear' Vocabulary. It has a good amount of research on words modifying "fear" and words "analogous" to fear that exist in English language. And, I explain each of them as part of humanity better understanding the "Kinds of Fear" that exist and with the aim of establishing a "Fear Nomenclature" as part of "Establishing a Common Language" for humanity (at least in English language). It was my fascination with taxonomies that led this book to be of some value. Again, I could not promote this book well and it went no where in public circulation; albeit, I have 14 copies of it in my library at home. All these self-published efforts are published by the Canadian publishing house, In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute (owned by R. M. Fisher and B. Bickel, registered since c. 1991). 

3. Adler, M. J. (1977/92). Mortimer J. Adler: Philosopher at large: An intellectual autobiography. NY: Collier Books. 

4. Robin, C. (2004). Fear: The history of an idea. NY: Oxford University Press. 

For my latest (over an hour long) intense 2023 interview by John Coleman, founder of Apocatastasis Institute : 

go to: 

https://www.bitchute.com/video/BRKDoZLiHri8/?comment=gATYD3m8fRasUFVN9c8bHHYdIpm05XtWYCKq

Any philosophical inquiry into "fear" (with as diverse of meanings that it has)--has to include a historical and philosophical look at what people (e.g., like Hobbes) have done with the notion of "fear." In modern W. thought/philosophy, Thomas Hobbes (18th century) is a leading figure in this reconstruction. Today, there are a few thinkers, like myself, also involved in deconstructions and reconstructions of "fear." I just found this Abstract of a paper in Russian, that I wish was in English, because it looks fascinating, so I thought I would share the Abstract here (published in 2017 in Journal of Philosophy 21(4), 602-11. 

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Certainly this raises interesting questions, as part of a discourse and set of debates (mostly in social philosophy) as to what is the nature and role of "fear" in human societies and what should it be for optimal and healthy functioning? I think Hobbes, amongst others, was trying to make a more positive association for fear and even for adopting a fear-based positioning in terms of motivational priorities in the ways to construct a so-called rational (modern state)--society. There are lots of problems in my way of thinking about this strategy on his part, and it seems this Russian academic also has his problems with Hobbes. 

In my own Fear Management Systems theory (FMST), I have classified this fear-positivism manouever as 'common' for the last few hundred years, and especially common in the late 20th century into the 21st century. But I have also noted, both its valuable contribution and its potential pathological shadow dimension, based on FMST. Hobbesian thinking is a means of fear management itself--that is, a system of understanding and managing fear--with a particular agenda, in a particular historical and ideological context. Thus, it is not so simple to just say, oh, now we have not just irrational fear (the common view)--but there is a rational fear too. Not so simple, and that move of Hobbes and many others who follow this fear-positivism ideology do not even realize they are using an ideology to construct within, in order to rationalize "fear" and that itself can be very problematic for a lot of reasons, beyond the scope of my short blogpost here. I classify Hobbesian fear-thinking (philosophy) as FMS-4 --based on a spectrum of FMSs (i.e., fear management systems evolved from the beginning of human consciousness, history and before)--whereby, I see the spectrum having 10 identifiable FMSs 0-9. For more on my classification system, you can go to Fisher (2010). 

Reference

Fisher, R. M. (2010). The world's fearlessness teachings: A critical integral approach to fear management/education for the 21st century. Lanham, MD.: University Press of America/Rowman & Littlefield.