As long as enough people can be frightened, then all people can be ruled. That is how it works in a democratic system and mass fear becomes the ticket to destroy rights across the board.

Bovard’s line distills a recurring theme in his libertarian critique of modern governance: fear is a political technology. In his view, democratic systems do not automatically protect liberty; rather, elected leaders can exploit public anxiety—about crime, terrorism, disease, or other threats—to secure consent for expanded state power. The quote argues that once a sufficiently large portion of the public is frightened, political incentives shift toward “doing something,” even if that means suspending due process, widening surveillance, or restricting speech and movement. “Mass fear” becomes a kind of currency that purchases extraordinary measures, which then tend to persist beyond the emergency that justified them.