The popular culture always had its fears. Although these horrors changed in time, every era had one prominent fear. For the present time, popular culture has a large choice of horrors. Some of them are war, severe medical issues, and financial disaster. All of these horrors are issues for today’s society. Yet, the most prominent fear in popular culture is terrorist attacks. The world faces a new threat against peace all around the globe. One of the largest organization of terrorist in present days is represented by ISIS and radical Muslims.
“At the University of California at Irvine, experiments in rats indicate that the brain’s hormonal reaction to fear can be inhibited, softening the formation of memories and the emotions they evoke” (Baard).
These films also use the public’s great anticipation and fear of terrorists in these films to engage people and also the films often cleverly use the publics sensitive fear of modern day terrorism to make the films more serious, ...
What is an archetype and what is a stereotype? That was the question I was asked on the first day of class. It was something that I had never thought of for more than a minute, but I would soon learn that archetypes and stereotypes show themselves in everyday media and have walked, hand and hand, throughout time. Of the many archetypes and stereotypes that popped into my head, one has rang true throughout the quarter, the idea that we, as a society, make monsters out of those people or cultures that we fear or do not understand. This can be seen throughout time, but the most noticeable ones are: the myth of vampires, especially Dracula, from Eastern Europe, the urban legends that surround homosexuals, and the stereotypes that society has about the Muslim religion.
Winkler, A. 'The New Terrorist Threat'. Accuracy In Media. November 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2011 < http://www.aim.org/briefing/the-new-terrorist-threat/>
Terror is rising day by day all over the world, and United States is no exception. There have been mass shootings at schools, shopping malls, music concerts and even at a movie theatre. So far, there have been 398 mass shootings recorded only in the past 50 years which resulted in 1996 deaths and 2488 people injured[1]. According to Van Dorn et al., a history of childhood abuse, binge drinking, and male gender are all predictive risk factors for serious violence[2]. The average number of genocides is 7 per year for last 50 years which took 39 lives and 48 person injuries per year[1]. These incidents affect the society on a high rate which in turn contributes for such situations again indirectly.
The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things, by Barry Glassner exposes Americans who contrive new ways to elicit fearful reactions from the easily impressionable public, and also profit from these such reactions. These people, or the news media, according to Glassner, are what he calls fear mongers, which are the people he holds responsible for a great deal of American’s fears (Glassner, xxxi). He proposes that Americans, as a whole, experience fear in a way unlike most emotions; we can be easily manipulated into feeling it in almost all facets of everyday life. Glassner argues that we may succumb to fears so easily because of the excessive news coverage of otherwise statistically insignificant occurrences. To support
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.
Just like the society of today, mass hysteria of terrorist threats looms inside everybody’s mind. The events of 9/11 struck the media and the States with panic, and now with the threat of ISIS, one truly cannot be too careful. Anybody who acts a certain way can be branded as a terrorist and arrested for “suspicious activity”, just like the teenager Ahmed Mohamed who was arrested after creating a clock for his class
Culture of Fear, by Frank Furedi, is a book that looks at how widespread fear impacts Western cultures like the United States and Great Britain. Frank Furedi believed that society tends to panic too much, as we actually enjoy "an unprecedented level of safety." I admit that Frank Furedi's novel is based upon a novel concept, and an interesting one at that. However, Frank Furedi comes off to me as little more than a fear monger and an intellectual elitist. His book, to me, seems redundant more often than not. But sometimes part of college is learning about points of view that you may not agree with, so I tried to maintain that perspective when I read the book.
The Culture of Fear originally published in 1999 by Basic Books in New York, but was updated and enlarged for its tenth anniversary edition in 2010 which features new topics such as the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001, school shootings, and vaccines scares. The author is Barry Glassner a former sociology professor and executive vice provost at the University of Southern California. He claims that many Americans’ concerns and fears are largely unfounded; therefore, his book is focused on the question of why America happens to be a nation where fear is highly captivated in most of our social media and he seeks to find how and why people become fearful to
Logic and reason are critical components of the human mind. Sometimes, those components are overcome by an external force, such as fear and imagination. Fear and imagination go hand in hand, as fear can trigger one's imagination to fill in the details that can't be figured out about a certain situation, such as the source of a strange noise or marking. Imagination overcomes reason by using imagination as a coping mechanism for the unknown, and when fear of the truth is stronger than that of reason or rationale.
... is fundamentally a whole; however, many of us have lost touch with significant elements of our selves. Through listening to the information of our dreams and active imagination, we can contact and reintegrate our different parts. The goal of life is individuation, the idea of coming to know, giving expression to, and reconciling the diverse elements of the psyche.
“Primal Fear” (1996) is a masterfully crafted film based on the novel written by William Diehl. Aaron Stampler (the main character) was on trial for the murder of an archbishop. He cunningly convinces his psychiatrist as well as his defense attorney (Martin Vail) that he suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. Stampler then plead for insanity successfully and was transferred to a mental institution for “help”. In the end, the audience shockingly discovers that Stampler had been lying the entire time about his alter ego; he manipulated everyone and clawed his way to freedom. “Primal Fear” provides excellent insight into psychopathy and contains subconscious themes the writer projects through the actions of the main characters.
Some events, which are perpetrated by Jewish Zealots against Roman Occupiers and moderate Jews, contain basic characteristics of terrorist attacks and show the fact that terrorism existed even in the year 66 A.D. (Nacos 174). However, effects of these early terrorists attacks were relatively small and these attacks were not creating serious consequences like recent terrorist activities. So, even though terrorism is a very old concept, it became one of the most important factors that shape politics and social order all around the world with the new millennium. Especially just after 9/11, terrorism became not only a matter of politics and state businesses but also became a matter that affects ordinary people's lives because attacks of terrorist organizations take thousands of lives and promote fear among millions of people who are not directly targeted by terrorists. Since the affects of terrorist events are so significant and vital, the concept of terrorism and reasons that lies behind this increase on the influence of terrorism deserves attention. There are articles which indicate the news media as the main reason of the increase in the influence of terrorism. Obviously, there is more than one reason behind this increase on the influence of terrorism but even Margaret Thatcher, who is one of the former prime-ministers of the United Kingdom, agrees with the articles by defining the publicity which is provided by news coverage as the "oxygen" of terrorism (Nacos 175). That massive effect of the news media creates ethical problems about the news coverage of terrorism. However, the subject is not simple enough to solve by banning the news media from making news about terrorism or terrorist activities because it can be a violation of ...
Terrorism is one of the most extensively discussed issues of our time and at the same time it is also one of the least understood. The term itself “terrorism” means many different things to different people, cultures, and races. As a result, trying to define or classify terrorism with one universal definition is nearly impossible. The definition of terrorism used in this research is a reflection of much of the Western and American way of defining it. The definition of terrorism is,