Fear Industry: Democratic Security Aesthetics and Politics in the Consumer Society

Abstract

This paper takes into account the commercialization of human fears in the current phase of Capitalism. By fear industry we understand not only the social production of risk and doubt, but also the commercial and political profit generated from the existential doubt of the individuals. To elaborate this postulate, a diRerentiation between the producer society and the consumer society is proposed as a hermeneutical frame, which allows grasping the singularity of the current individualizing dynamics. Along with this diRerentiation, the conversion –metamorphosis- of the Social State into the Personal Security State is shown, i.e., the dismantling of the collective safeties and the birth of the privatization of security. Given that the State assigns the responsibility of taking care of themselves to the individuals, the market finds an unexplored mine to work. There are a huge variety of products which promise to eradicate the fears and doubts of the individuals. The most popular and successful solutions to temporary ease the fear and doubts are divided into two groups: on one hand, the solutions oRered by the stores and the private insurances oRered by the commercial and financial entities; on the other hand, the discourses and practices of Democratic and Civic Security. Both groups of solutions aim to ease the symptoms of fear, but never aim to eradicate the sources. As a proof of the political and commercial profitability of fear, this paper oRers some views on the way the real estate industry designs and advertises urban spaces according to an aesthetic of security in the city. Our analysis is based on the researches done on contemporary cultural phenomena and dynamics by Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Robert Castel, among others