The idea of failure tops the list of fears among students at Sac State.

According to my informal survey, many see failing to succeed in college as the scariest constant lurking in the back of their minds. Second to that came relationships.

My survey of students included several questions on the topic of money and fear.

What do you fear most? Are you scared about whether or not you will succeed? Do you think money is as important as it is made out to be? Do you think relationships are dependent on money? Is money or property worth dying for?

I received many different answers but most students had the same fear of failure.

“I fear failing to accomplish my goal, to get into Med School,” said Lorraine Armijos, Associated Students, Inc. director of natural sciences and mathematics.

The explanation for such fears stems from economics. Finding a profitable job, making money and living the good life play a huge role in driving the United States’ economy.

We are a nation driven by economic fear.

Psychological fear in the United States is often based on an individual’s ability to acquire material goods. Turn the tube on and you will observe a myriad of commercials urging the viewer to imitate and consume.

Failing to do so will lead to feelings of impotence and inadequacy. These psychological inadequacies equate with failure.

All those commercials and shows seem to teach us one thing: If you cannot consume correctly you must not be a success.

My poll indicated that many students go to college out of sheer economic fear. Students defined success as the ability to make money in a comfortable career. Having no money is failing.

Even personal relationships are money driven. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, one of the leading reasons for divorces in the United States is the issue of money “Fear means not being successful in career and relationships…what worries me is where am I going to find a girlfriend who is not trying to be Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears?” said Brett Frascati, a sophomore studying Business Marketing.

Television is possibly the leading disseminator of fear. It pumps viewers full of preconceived ideas about the ideal American life. Lack of money is a failure to achieve this so-called version of success.

Is fear essentially all about the bling bling?

You betcha! Money drives all our decision-making processes.

Consciously, capitalist societies employ the ideology that money establishes status and security. This ultimately leads to a false perception of completeness and happiness.

In the United States, a privileged and long established upper class usually prevails, while the rest are left to want and imitate. We are insecure about not having enough to appear rich or look like a star.

Students struggle through college in hopes that their efforts will be rewarded with the privilege of acquiring a job leading to economic success and status. In the meantime, many are constantly fearful that the failure to succeed will exclude them from achieving their desires.

Relationships essentially also become part of this economic equation.

The economy drives itself by abusing the working class. Work is the only solution to immediate economic want. It does not matter if it is a career choice or a job. The majority of Americans at the bottom of the totem pole are making somebody else rich while they live in an illusion of success.

Why are we so fearful?

Fear is a method of control in the United States. As other countries employ the horror of bloodshed to demonstrate control, the United States applies psychological, cultural and most importantly, economic repression.

In other words, America wages low intensity warfare against its own.

Our capitalist environment has made it so. The desire for status and material things have established insecurities within us that endure through a lifetime.

All of the careers, jobs, money, property, relationships, retirement, cars, clothes, houses, white-picket fences, two car garages, who you know and how many digits in your bank account require us to employ our protective instincts at all times. Many protect such material and economic gains even if it could cost them their life.

“All this enriching the rich has led to great insecurity on the part of the working people of North America,” said Jack D. Forbes, professor of Native American studies at University of California, Davis in his column “Native Intelligence: Raising again the bloody flag of racism.”

This insecurity is transferred from corporations and their custodians to the working classes in the guise of the uncertain fate of capitalist competition. This competition leads to distrust that in turn develops into the fanaticism and fear that exist in today’s class, race and political divisions.

All fears can be connected to the loss of money and property. I have discovered that many students’ career choices are not based on actual interest but instead on how much money can be made.

Freedom is a right and a privilege. That paycheck does not actually make you free. By selling out you are even more enslaved by the economics of fear.

Are you scared of not making money? Send comments to [email protected].