Were we always afraid?

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That's a good point, Cernak. And the good presidents have been able to project that (including Reagan during the Cold War). IMO, the current prez has been quite dismal in this regard. But you will never convince his supporters of that (the few that are left). They are too busy being afraid.

 

Fear can be a powerful motivator, but it isn't going to last eternally. Take the USSR - its people, from 1921 to 1989, were given huge doses of fear to motivate them to work their ..... off for a regime that oppressed them in any way it could. "It will be worse if the counter-revolutionaries take over! There are diversants! Saboteurs! Spies! The evil clique (insert name of random american president here) conspires against the Revolution!" When, even in the relatively good years after 1960, there was no food, clothing was hard to get, and for a car you had to wait 10 years so that your time comes, the explanation was, effectively, fear: your worries are insignificant, the whole state is in peril. At some point, the whole stuff just got old, especially as people found ways to listen to Free Europe, DW, the Voice of America... The radio must've done as much to overthrow communism as Gorbachev himself.
By the way, my aunt has often told me of the drills and militia trainings they made. The part that was weirdest, for her, is that during training they had to carry their rifles even in the toilets. Imagine. University students had to calculate the death toll of various nuclear bombs exploding at a given height over the big cities of the country. That must've really livened up their mood, I should think.