There is an ancient Arab fable that throws light on a problem that is as old as the world itself and as recent as this morning’s breakfast.

This fable narrates the story that Plague threatened to visit Teheran and kill 10,000 people. True to his word, Plague ravished the Persian capital but the victims were 100,000. The leaders of the city were furious.

Plague did not honour his word, they said. That is a very strong accusation in a culture where honouring one’s word is considered to be of paramount importance.

Consequently, these leaders sent a high-powered delegation to make its remonstrations in the strongest possible manner.

Plague, faced by accusations of alleged dishonour, angrily retorted: I kept my word. I only killed 10,000; the other 90,000 were killed by fear.

This basic truth finds its place in Western fiction as well. Frank Herbert in Dune, the 1965 epic science fiction futuristic novel considered by many to be the best of its genre, writes the same thing. “Fear is the mind-killer”, he clearly states while recounting the complex interfaces of politics, religion, ecology, technology and human emotion in the struggle for the control of the desert planet Arrakis, the repository of the most valuable substance in the universe.

The Islamic State is surely familiar with the Arab fable and is masterfully managing a strategy based on fear. Many in the West, on the other hand, who must be familiar with the TV serialisation of Dune’s novel and its sequels, have learned nothing from its content. They are abysmally ignorant of the basic truth that the fear of fear is the worst kind of fear.

Isis manufactures its fear strategy through diabolically staged perversity by means of videos communicated through the social networks and then picked up, for enhanced credibility, by the mass media. The gruesome beheading of single journalists or people from the West, the burning of a Jordanian Muslim pilot, the collective execution of Egyptian Copts, the murder of a gay people thrown to their deaths from high buildings, the parading of Yazidi and Christian girls on sale as sex slaves. The list goes on and on. The latest story is that they cooked a prisoner and gave the ‘meal’ to the victim’s mother informing her of the abomination only after she thanked them for the meal.

Many continue falling for this strategy. They believe that the Islamic State is unbeatable although their losses on the battlefield are now accruing after the great successes in the beginning of their barbarous campaign.

Like many countries, Malta is no exception; a culture of fear is being stoked thus undermining and distorting reason, emotions and perceptions. It is as if Isis is round the corner ready to pounce on little Malta ravaging everyone that crosses its path. An informed analysis of what is happening around us should lead one to the rational conclusion that nothing can be further from the truth.

Like many countries, Malta is no exception; a culture of fear is being stoked thus undermining and distorting reason, emotions and perceptions

Last September the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism published a report about the possibility of a US citizen (they are a more likely target than Maltese) being killed by a terrorist. Based on an analysis of the facts, they concluded that Americans are more likely to be killed by a toddler or as a result of drowning in a bathtub or by being hit by lightning than being killed by a terrorist. There is no rational justification for panic.

Both the government and Opposition have tried to calm the rising panic. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat gave a credible performance on Xarabank where he realistically described the situation and Malta’s positioning. I hope that his input succeeded in calming the fear that is unnecessarily paralysing many.

• The antidote to the paralysis brought by fear is the liberating action of truth.

Last Monday The Guardian carried an excellent editorial about the murder of Russian Opposition leader Boris Nemstov on February 27. The Guardian’s analysis of the interaction of propaganda and truth in this particular case is also applicable to our post-modern culture, which gave Nietzsche’s statement that “There are no facts, only interpretations” dogmatic and almost mythical status.

Whenever the affirmation is made that everyone has their own truth if carried to its logical conclusion, the possibility of meaningful public discourse is atrophied and the communicative capability of humans gravely undermined.

This relativistic underpinning of contemporary culture leads to nihilism and to the shedding of responsibility. What has been affirmed for so long by Catholic Church, most famously by Pope Benedict XVI, is now being acknowledged and echoed by the editor of a left-leaning secular paper, no less.

What The Guardian writes about Vladimir Putin’s Russia is true of so many situation is so many countries:

“The idea that there are multiple interpretations of the truth has become the founding philosophy of State disinformation in Putin’s Russia, designed to confuse those who would seek out the truth with multiple expressions of distracting PR chaff. The tactic is to create as many competing narratives as possible. And, amid all the resultant hermeneutic chaos, to quietly slip away undetected.”

The trampling of the truth by propaganda, the extolment of the spin, the befuddling of issues is the premier (pun intended) practice and goal of politics based on cynicism which, as I noted in a recent commentary, have flourished in today’s Malta as they never did before.

Cynicism has been refined into a political programme that rewards sectorial interests, even when dastardly egoistic, at the expense of the common good. The cynical politician opts for momentarily convenient solutions over those that can lead to long-term beneficial goals. Doublespeak is the order of the day of the powers that be. The real meaning of their statement is exactly the opposite of its literal meaning.

Politics built on cynicism means the death of politics as instead of the service of the polis it becomes the bloating of the ego of the supremo at the top. This charade has to be denounced. Truth not cynical and scandalous premier deals will set us free.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt