Fictionalized monsters, while many have their origins in folklore and medical phenomena, become lightning rods for our broader existential, social, and economic anxieties. When anxieties about immigration are high, for example, home invasion films do well at the box office.
Villains provide catharsis for our feelings of helplessness, and we identify with heroes who can slay the monsters of our unacknowledged fears.
What your subconscious fears may actually determine what ghastly ghoul or undead creature frightens you most. Popular wisdom, for example, holds that conservatives fear vampires while Democrats fear zombies.
We created 11 questions to determine in which political category you fall—Anarchist, Socialist, Progressive, Libertarian, Conservative, Paleoconservative—and help you better understand what you fear.
Take the quiz below … if you dare.
Foundation for Economic Education
The Foundation for Economic Education, founded 1946, works for a free and prosperous world.