Fear does play an important role in how we act and what we do. There have been many examples on ways that people react to fear irrationally. Fear is a great strategy if used right. Fear can be used to also manipulate people in to acting or reacting to things that normally won't cause trouble.
As we have already learned about McCarty and his uses of accusations causes people to act irrationally. People were getting accused of being or supporting communist activity and McCarthy used a crafty ruse to fool everyone. Naming names was a great strategy for expanding the accusations and making the community involved. The fear of corruption caused everyone to create a false since of security.
In a more recent story the invasion in Iraq the fear of a terrorist group having possession of a nuclear weapon. The idea that because, of differences and hatred, Iraq had the power to eliminate. So with everything said and done the answer was to invade. Right or wrong, this solution was reached rationally or irrationally because of fear.
The fact is with fear that if evidence is present, true or false, people tend to react and believe it. They think and act before they use common sense. The idea behind fear is plainly something that can be anything can be used if people believe or react scared to the enemy. People get so focused on over coming their fears or facing them they done use their brains to really make sure that the fears they face are real. .