Desiree Miller

Methods- Fearing Fear Itself

ENGL 1010
Professor Kay

Paul Krugman is a distinguished professor in the Graduate Center Economics Ph.D.

program at the University of New York, and he works as an op-ed columnist for the
New York Times. After the horrific attacks in Paris on November 13 th, 2015, he wrote
an article explaining the importance of refusing to give in to fear. Throughout this
article, Krugman uses different rhetorical tools, specifically ethos, pathos, and logos,
to help his message about Fearing Fear Itself reach his audience.
His first method, ethos, is used multiple times throughout the paper. He quotes Jeb
Bush by saying Terrorism is an organized attempt to destroy western civilization,
as a rebuttal against his own belief, as he thinks terrorism is just an organized
attempt to sow panic. Krugman stresses the importance of not responding to
terrorism in the wrong ways, and mentions Donald Rumsfeld who said sweep it up,
related or not. He then refers to the little girl Virginia (who wrote a letter to the
Francis P. Church, asking if Santa Clause was real), as he says people can and do
exploit terrorism for political gain. Krugman states that ending our reluctance to kill
innocent civilians wouldnt remove the limits to America power, as Ted Cruz may
imagine, but would do wonders for terrorist recruitment. He goes on to reference
President Obama, by saying that terrorism is not the greatest threat we face, and
we shouldnt let it divert our attention from other issues.
The second method I found to be frequent in this article is pathos. Krugman says
that he has been obsessively following the news of the Paris attacks to focus on the
horror, showing concern for the victims of the atrocious event. He shows faith in
France as he states that it is a robust democracy with a deep well of popular
legitimacy. He also states that France is not going to be conquered by ISIS, now or
ever, as the country retains a powerful military. Krugman then brings out the
emotional conflicts associated with the general responses to terrorism. A mix of
policing, precaution, and military action, all involved difficult tradeoffs. Surveillance
versus privacy, protection versus freedom of movement, denying terrorists safe
havens versus the costs and dangers of waging war abroad.
Another method I noticed is logos. When Krugman says that France has the
resources to make its military much stronger if it chooses, it is logical knowing that
Frances economy is around 20 times the size of Syrias. Also to say that Frances
defense budget is small compared to Americas, but nonetheless retains a powerful
military is very accurate.