[Adam]

Well, one thing that fear has going for it, is that fear provides motivation. The problem with it, though, is that the motivation you get from fear isn't logical. There are other sources of motivation, including love. I do things for my wife, but my motivation isn't because I'm afraid of losing her or of any other fear out there. I do things because I genuinely love her. If I were afraid of my wife leaving, then I might try to restrict her freedom in the hope that she wouldn't see something that she likes better.

The way that I see it, is that choices that are motivated by fear are disempowering. A great example is The Patriot Act, where we have lost a lot of our freedom and privacy. An alternative, one that would be made in defiance of fear, would be to publicly apologize for the things the terrorists see so abhorrent. Instead of playing into the terrorists' hands and committing more atrocities which gives the terrorists more members, we would be destroying the foundation for the terrorists' anger, removing support from them without lifting a weapon. If, after the dust settled, we were motivated by love instead of fear, we would set up a stronger infrastructure in the nations where the terrorists are from (infrastructure as in water, sanitation, power, roadways, and communications, not infrastructure as in police and military), which would cement the US as the good guys (which we actually would be in that case) rather than the biggest bully on the block (which we have become).

Love is just as powerful of a motivational tool as fear, but the results are far more empowering. Getting rid of fear is fine, but if you don't replace it with something, then you're left empty, and as you pointed out, you'll find that you don't have any motivation.