Hey all-
I hope you’ve been able to take some time to rest this summer as we head into the chaos known as the midterms.
This month we’re going to talk about fear and the various ways it shows up in our work. Fear isn’t just an obstacle, it can be one of the most powerful tools we have in. In the wrong hands, it’s the thing that slowly burning our communities out.
1. Fear in our communities
When I think about fear this is the first thing I think about. Folks today are scared with good reason. Acknowledging that is not weakness. It’s the starting point for real organizing.
What the best organizing does is give people living in constant fear somewhere to put it. A strong theory of change doesn’t just name what’s wrong, it invites people into the fight for what’s right. Fear becomes fuel instead of paralysis.
But we can only do that if we’re not the ones adding to the fear. More on that in a moment.
2. Fear as manipulation
This is the one I keep coming back to.
We have to talk about the doom and gloom subject lines….”The Sky is Falling”…”Final Notice”. You know the ones I’m talking about.
I hear people defend these tactics all the time by declaring they work. Maybe. In the short term. But I and others have done enough A/B testing to tell you that fear mongering rarely outperform honesty, and even genuinely positive subject lines. And even when they do win in the short term, they are losing something bigger long term: trust.
Every time you manufacture a crisis that doesn’t quite materialize as you’ve described, you spend your own credibility that you can’t get back. Do it enough and your list stops believing you, even if the crisis is real. In this moment, none of us can afford that.
There’s a difference between harnessing the fear and triggering it, and as organizers triggering fear should never be in our playbook.
3. Fear inside our organizations
The fear that lives inside our organizations is quieter but just as destructive. It usually shows up as fear of failure.
In advocacy and electoral work especially, there’s an often unspoken pressure to win. And when winning isn’t guaranteed, fear of failure starts making decisions instead of smart strategy.
I’ve watched this play out in organizations of every size. The org so afraid of what the numbers might say they don’t ever look at them, even as their program was failing right before their eyes. The org that never segments their list beause someone might get left off of an email (has anyone actually ever complained about not getting an email that wasn’t relevant to them to begin with??). The org that went dark on social media and stopped doing press because someone might say the wrong thing. The org that keeps running the same tired tactics year after year because trying something new means risking failure.
Fear or failure is how organizations stop growing. Ironically, it’s also how they guarantee the failure they feared to begin with.
4. Fear as a motivator
Here’s the thing, fear isn’t the enemy. Irresponsible fear is. Used honestly, fear can be one of the most powerful motivators we have, internally and externally.
Internally, when expectations are clear, applied consistently and consequences are communicated in advance, a healthy accountability culture motivates people to do their best work. That’s not fear mongering, that’s effective leadership.
Externally, the most effective organizing names what’s at stake honestly, and then pairs it with clear, believable action that gives people somewhere to put their fear. The research on this is consistent: fear alone paralyzes, fear plus agency mobilizes.
At the end of the day, the most durable organizing work pairs fear with vision. Fear may get them in the door, but hope and a feeling of belonging keep them engaged for the long haul.