ABSTRACT
The discourse of fear originated in religious beliefs and now pervades a secular society. Fear is an orientation to the world. God and organized religion provided salvation from fear in a sacred society. Fear is a feature of an ecology of communication that connects information technology to communication formats and social activities and meanings. The Fresnel lens operated by providing magnified light from many small refracting lenses onto a main bull's-eye that shone through the night. It was part of ecology of communication in its day. Risk, danger, and fear are wrapped up in the discourse of fear because of the ways in which they have been used. Social life can become more hostile when social actors define their situations as fearful and engage in speech communities through the discourse of fear. The discourse of fear has major implications for social justice and especially our standards of justice. Fear destroys justice. A just society can never come from fear.
