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 …show more content…
Most of the tips he gives are used by Glassner in The Culture of Fear. Most importantly, in my opinion, is the passion with which Glassner writes. Even without the thoroughly researched statistics and factual evidence of his claims, it is quite evident that Glassner chose a topic to write about that deeply interested him. Writing with such passion and interest makes, as Trimble describes, a passionate and interested audience. Glassner, in his book, seems most passionate about the fact that the media blows every rare and statistically insignificant incident completely out of proportion. Because of his use of Trimble’s writing guidelines, Glassner ended up with a book that has a strong message and a largely influenced …show more content…
Although he cannot give a logic based explanation for the overwhelming fear that Americans feel, he does proceed to pose and explain illogical reasons behind this statistic. Glassner feels that the majority of the fears Americans experience today are overly dramatized and only a real concern for a small percentage of people, especially when compared to global problems such as hunger and disease (Glassner 202; Cole “What’s the Price of Life”). This happens because behind every pseudo fear, there is a legitimate problem that gets nowhere near as much attention as it actually deserves. The media only broadcasts or publishes stories that it believes will quickly capture the attention of the audience, promote circulation and increase profits. This explains why so much is heard about kidnappings-even though statistically they are quite rare- and so little about world hunger or the world water crisis. Glassner gives numerous examples of this, but the one that stands out the most is the story of a business called the Ideon Group. The business took advantage of parents’ fears about their child going missing by promoting a service that they had to pay for. They claimed to be able to protect children from kidnappings if you paid them a tremendous amount of money. This group played into the emotions of distraught
The Dangers of Fear Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worst attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point where they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous examples used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were.
“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).
The addition of fear is sometimes too much for people to handle. As if they didn’t have enough already” (Baker 1).
According to the text “ there were relatively few stories or images focusing on aging, poverty, isolation, crime and fear, and the ethno racial, or gender distribution of mortality, morbidity, and access to care.” They went to the extreme by looking for more information and pictures with people in body bags to put on their front page. People use the media as their information source to guide them on what is going on in their countries and around the world. What is portrayed in the media is often taken as true even if it actually is not completely accurate. Throughout the text it was clear to see that there is pressure when it comes to the media. News reporter often think about what they are going to present to the public because it has to be brain washing and appealing, but they also want to keep their connections to sources such as public officials. This means what they end up reporting is effected by what public officials will approve of, to make them look
"Culture of Fear" is a book that describes that it is our perceptions that dangers have increased, and so much the actual level of risk. Glassner explains in all of his chapters how people and organizations use our fears as a way to increase their profit. Glassner also states about the prices we pay for our panics and all the time and energy we spend worrying. Americans are afraid because of the media's broadband expose of crime, violence, drugs and diseases.
In today’s society the word “terrorism” has gone global. We see this term on television, in magazines and even from other people speaking of it. In their essay “Controlling Irrational Fears After 9/11”, published in 2002, Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris argue that the reaction of the American officials, people and the media after the attacks of 9/11 was completely irrational due to the simple fact of fear. Chapman and Harris jump right into dismembering the irrational argument, often experienced with relationships and our personal analysis. They express how this argument came about from the terrorist being able to succeed in “achieving one major goal, which was spreading fear” among the American people (Chapman & Harris, para.1). The supporters of the irrational reaction argument state that because “Americans unwittingly cooperated with the terrorist in achieving the major goal”, the result was a widespread of disrupted lives of the Americans and if this reaction had been more rational then there would have been “less disruption in the lives of our citizens” (Chapman & Harris, para. 1).
American is a land where the government, the corporations and the media capitalize on the simple fears of the public to complete their end goals. America is constantly at war, then when the war is over there is an economic downturn because of the lack of industry that supported the wars. As children we are taught there is a true undercurrent of jealously between us and every other country, including our allies. An example of one of these unfounded threats that is widely accepted is from our political and economic ally China. Because China lacks of resources, many American’s believe that there they have nefarious designs on our home front. This fear of a threat from some unknown place that is other is seen in TV shows like Roswell.
“Nervousness seeps into terror as I anticipate what is to come. I could be dead, flat-out dead, in an hour” (pg. 146). As America today many people suffer of terror because it has become very violent that people think that it’s not safe to even be outside because they are worried that their children can be kidnapped or shot, knowing that there are many drive byes everywhere.
...de Americans on September 11, 2001. Now we are being told this number is possibly three times higher than originally reported, adding to the horror in America’s citizens. Society has been indoctrinated in the belief that there is continuously a worldwide threat. Paranoia and anxiety has been the key focal point and the American way of life.
The concept of moral panic emerges when the mass media sensationalizes violence as it relates to drug use and sales. It is defined as a “condition, episode, person or group emerges to become defined as a threat to social values and interests.” (Altheide, 2009, p.79) Media coverage on select topics such as drugs and the violence associated with it shows a pronounced problem. The problems and issues trigger a panic by the public to act and reduce the threat to social conditions to prevent violence and drugs from reaching their communities. “Moral panics can be understood as having an ideological dimension in that they...
• Fitzgerald, Brian. McCarthyism: The Red Scare. Minneapolis. White-Thompson, 2007. Print.
Sadly, Bradbury’s predictions about the effect fear have on erratic decision making is shown in society today. An egotistical businessman named Donald Trump, who was to our dismay was recently elected to be our president. He is very controversial and makes a lot of rude and sexist remarks, so people are still confused unto why America has chosen him to be their president. The answer is simple. People did it out of fear, fear that the refugees coming from a very dangerous place will harm them. Statistics have shown that “31% of Americans specifically say the new immigration policy will keep them safer…. [while only] 26% fear the new rules will make them less safe” (Ropeik). This shows that some Americans find Trump's fear of terrorists beneficial and think that it would keep them safe from the immigrants or outsiders from other countries. Ignoring the fact that they believe he is under qualified, they made this rash decision purely to be protected from what they fear. Some Americans fear that the immigrants from other countries will come in and end up being terrorists or will come into the country and take their jobs. This fear instantly invokes them to try and find protection from it. Trump's remarks are beneficial in the way that it could bring safety against the immigrants who we fear, but also brings in a detrimental effect. Trumps Muslim Ban is detrimental because of the hate crimes that would follow Donald Trump's
In addition, the Cold War is what brought this fear. Elaine Tyler May says that it has become an obsession to gain security. She says that because of fear, movements, such as feminism and black equality, prevented these individuals from being fully accepted into society as equals. I believe that fear has only distracted America from these movements of becoming fully successful. The article also refers to America being less of a democracy by citizens refusing to have faith in their government and refusing to trust one another. Reputedly, fear is what shaped America the way it is
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.
The terror management theory is a motivational theory which speculates that human beings have an underlying fear of death. These feelings are managed within that person by developing or maintaining a two- part cultural anxiety buffer; an individual worldview and a sense of self value or self-esteem. (Pyszczynski,Greenberg, & Solomon, 1997) According to the theory, high self-esteem reflects the successful participation in and internalization of meaningful cultural worldview. (Schmeichel, Gailliot, Filardo, MrGregor, Gitter, &Baumeister 2009) Goldenberg and Shakelford (2005) suggested that “the need for self-esteem is often seen as the master motive that underlies much o...