Fear is all-pervasive, and it’s addictive. Behind much of our rationale for what we buy, for voting the way we do and determining our vision of the future, fear is a basic ingredient of our existence.

Jason Louv of Green Team takes at look the the BBC’s ‘The Power of Nightmares’ and discovers that both ideologues and extremists use fear to hypnotic effect.

Hank Stewart looks at the political use of the National Threat Level as a tool to manipulate public opinion.