Brandon McCormick Dr. Lyn J.

Freymiller CAS 137H 19 November 2013 Fear and Loathing in the USA: Why the United States is Afraid of Everything The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. When Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke these now famous words, the United States of America was gripped with the fear of uncertainty due to the economic turmoil of the Great Depression. Americas economy recovered due to the boom in production from WWII, and America stopped fearing poverty and unemployment and began to fear Hitler and Hirohito. After VE (Victory in Europe) and VJ (Victory in Japan) Day, America moved on to fearing Stalin, Khrushchev, and nuclear war. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, the missiles were never launched, and eventually the Berlin Wall came down. One would think the fall of the Iron Curtin would bring a time of relative peace and the people of America would collectively stop holding their breath and go on to enjoy their lives. But to the contrary, the ensuing two decades would mark the most fearful era in American history. Beginning in the 1990s and extending into the present day, America has been gripped by a culture of fear in which many people believe that no one and nowhere are safe. This shift in which America stopped being afraid of one or two things and started being afraid of almost everything marks an important shift in the culture of the United States of America and may even be harmful to our society. This essay will first define this new fear. Then it will examine the sources behind Americas shift to a fear culture. Such sources include horrific events; two such events, the Columbine shooting and 9/11, will be examined. Other sources that will be analyzed individually are the media, politicians and corporations and

companies who use fear to their advantage to gain viewers, power, or money. A New Kind of Fear Fear is not a new phenomenon; it has been a part of human society from the very beginning. Fear is a natural aspect of the human condition and can even be beneficial and drive progress. Wasnt it the fear of polio that prompted Jonas Salk to create his vaccine? But when fear intrudes into every aspect of a culture, it stops being a force for good and begins to be a detriment to society. That kind of fear is what grips America today. Americans have become increasingly worried of threats real and perceived (Hanus). How is the fear that Americans feel today different from the fear they felt of the Nazis or the Soviets? Sociologist Frank Furedi contends that Americans today do not fear a single thing but many. He says that Americans have a more promiscuous, pluralistic form of fearing. He goes on to say that while the previous generations feared together, Americans today fear alone. The fear felt by previous generations brought people together and encouraged camaraderie, but the fear of today only serves to engender a feeling of isolation and helplessness. This new kind of fear is widespread and allencompassing as many Americans today find something to fear in almost every situation. Should Americans be Afraid? Where does this fear come from? Some may contend that the reason Americans are more afraid is that there is more to fear. They may say that these are dangerous, violent times we live in and people must adapt appropriately. They think that being afraid of everything is appropriate and even necessary for this day and age. But this is not the case; in fact, the opposite is true. Many experts say that this may be the safest time to be alive in the history of mankind. Experimental psychologist Steven Pinker found that the chance of dying at the hands of another in modern America is less than one percent. This is compared to a fifteen or even sixty percent

chance of wrongful death during the most violent times in history. In fact, the murder rate has seen a steady decline since 1993 (Leinwand). That accounts for the fear of murder, but what about other dangers that face Americans? Another example of a fear that many Americans have, especially American parents, is the fear of their child being kidnapped. Nothing scares a parent more than the thought of their child being abducted by a perverted stranger wishing to do their child harm. But is this fear warranted? In his book titled The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things, sociologist Barry Glassner talks about the fallacies surrounding one of the biggest fears in America. He cites a statistic that said, more than 800,000 children are reported missing every year in the U.S(62). He also includes a recent study that said that three out of every four parents interviewed said that they live in fear that their child will be abducted. Glassner says that this fear is blown out of proportion, as the majority of these missing children are runaways who are usually fleeing from abusive parents. Another large portion of this 800,00 children were rejected by their parents, or were abducted (and later safely returned) by a parent during a custody battle. Each year, on average, only 200 to 300 children are abducted by non-family members (61). This is not to say that parents should not keep an eye on their kids or keep an eye on suspicious individuals, but it does mean that the widespread fear of child abduction is largely unnecessary. Overall, the violent crime rate in general has seen a significant decline. In 1993, 80 out of every 1,000 people reported that they were the victims of a violent crime; this is in stark contrast to today. In 2011, only 26 out of every 1,000 were violent crime victims (Leinwand). So if the fear that permeates almost every aspect of American society does not come from actual danger, what is the source? The Real Sources

The Columbine Shooting The shift to the fear culture of today was usually slow, gradual, and almost imperceptible. It was, at certain times however, progressed quite rapidly by tragic events that occurred in the U.S., the whole time being driven by the media, politicians, and other groups. On April 20, 1999 in Littleton Colorado, two students, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who attended Columbine High School, opened fired on their classmates and teachers, killing 13 and injuring 21 before taking their own lives (Rosenberg). There had been school shootings before Columbine, but this tragedy caught the nations attention and parents across the nation began questioning the safety of their children. Before Columbine, many parents never thought such an act of depravity was possible, especially at the hands of other children. People wondered if they werent safe in schools, where were they safe? A study done a year after the shooting in April 2000 found that 70% of parents believed that a shooting of this magnitude was possible in their neighborhoods school (Cloud). As with the fear of kidnapping, this fear of a Columbine-style shooting occurring at your childs school is widely unfounded. Recent data suggests that schools are safe places that are only getting safer. According to the Journal for Criminal Justice Ethics, the vast majority of schools (99.99%) have never had a homicide, and in 2000 there were only sixteen cases across the country (Cloud). Two years after the tragedy in Littleton, an event took place that again rapidly progressed the shift to a fear culture, and helped it to become more solidly entrenched in American society than ever before. Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 On September 11, 2001, 19 Islamist extremist militants associated with Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing two into the Twin Towers in New York City, one

into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the fourth crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania after the passengers struggled to retake the plane. Over 3,000 people lost their lives including over 400 first responders (9/11 Attacks). One of the biggest and widest reaching effects of the attacks on 9/11 was that they changed the very concept of enemies in America. As stated before, enemies before this tragic event were finite and tangible, like the Nazis or the Viet Cong. David Sirota wrote that The stress of 9/11 has elicited a kind of neurotic psychosis that embraces Permanent War and allows enemies to occupy a psychological space usually reserved for immortal bogeymen. By this Sirota means that after 9/11, America was engaged with a faceless enemy in a battle that had no tangible goals or a foreseeable end; this kind of war contributed to the fear culture in America because after the attacks no where felt safe, as attacks could come from anywhere at any time. Like Columbine, 9/11 had measurable effects on the psyche of the American people. The attacks caused a widespread feeling of fear across the country. Two researchers at the University of California, Irvine even found that 9/11 even affected peoples health; something they referred to as collective stress. The study found that among a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults, reports of physical ailments increased by 18% in the three years following September 11, 2001 (Holman and Silver). Many Tragic events like these have occurred since the ones mentioned here, such as the mass shootings at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, the movie theater in Colorado, or the elementary school in Connecticut. There have also been terrorist attacks such as the attack on the Boston Marathon. These tragedies have had the same effect as those mentioned previously. Many tragedies have struck the United States during its 237-year history, but the fear culture of today was not present until the previous two decades, so what else besides the tragedies of Columbine and 9/11 drove this shift?

Media Effects The horrors that America has faced in recent years did not, on their own, create the fear culture in the U.S.; it was driven in a large part by the media, politicians, and other entities that use fear for their personal gain. Over the past twenty years, the mentality in American newsrooms has become if it bleeds it leads (Glassner 260). In their book, Marcus Felson and Rachel Boba explain media effects with the horror distortion sequence; they write: They [the media] find a horror story, then entertain the public with it. They make money on it while creating a myth in the public mind. Then they build on that myth for the next horror story. As this happens, public misinformation grows, with new stories building on the public acceptance of past misconceptions. So, it is no accident that crime becomes so distorted in the public mind (Felson and Boba 2) This sequence shows how the media spreads misconceptions and fear. Because the media reports on such a wide variety of potential fears on a daily basis, this horror distortion sequence explains how the media was the main cause in the cultural shift to fearing almost everything in the United States. Other entities such as politicians and large corporations also use fear for their own benefit. Fear for Political Gain Following 9/11, the Bush administration played off of the fear of another terrorist attack to pass legislation that allowed the government unprecedented access into the private lives of Americans. These pushes became known as the Bush Doctrine and were embodied in the USA PATRIOT act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism). This law allows (amongst other things) for law enforcement

to use electronic surveillance to monitor average Americans while looking for a wide range of terrorism-related crimes (What Is the USA Patriot Act). Politicians use their positions of power to make people fear things to promote their personal or political agenda (Felson and Boba 13). This judicial use of fear to further an agenda has greatly increased the scope of fear culture by making Americans afraid of more and more unnecessary things. Fear for Monetary Gain Corporations also play off of fears to sell products. In 1993, there were only a handful of antibacterial products on the market. In 2009, there were over 9,000. This increase came despite the fact that the United States Food and Drug Administration concluded that antibacterial products were no better at preventing infection than regular soap. Sales of these antibacterial chemicals grossed over $930 billion dollars in 2009 (Hanus). These staggering numbers are a product of Americas newly found fear of germs that was driven by corporations to make a profit. Another example of corporations profiting from fear is the sale of bulletproof backpacks and white boards. These products are designed to keep children safe in the event of a school shooting. These products come with a hefty price tag. The University of Michigan Eastern Shores recently spent $60,000 to install bullet-stopping white boards in its classrooms. Many other institutions and individuals have been investing in these products even after safety experts (and common sense) show that they would do very little when confronted with an armed individual, and as mentioned before a school shooting is a very rare phenomenon (Connor). Done again and again, these tactics used by companies has, like the media and politicians, been the driving force behind Americas cultural shift.

Conclusion Over the past two decades, America has undergone a significant cultural shift. This country has gone from one that was unafraid or only afraid of a few things, and was united by this fear, to a nation that fears almost everything, everywhere, all of the time. This new kind of fear does not bring people together but separates them by expanding the sources of possible fear and destroying a sense of trust that was previously an important belief held individuals in many different communities. The reality of our time is that we live in a culture of fear. This fear is, for the most part, unwarranted like in the case of school shootings or child abduction, and in some cases almost ridiculous, as it is with the fear of bacteria. There are multiple forces behind this new widespread fear that can be found in many aspects of daily life. One source is landmark events that pushed the shift forward in great strides. There have been many such events in the past two decades like the Columbine massacre and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and more recent tragedies like the shooting at the middle school in Nevada this past week. There were also factors that moved the shift more slowly and gradually over time. These factors include the media, politicians, and corporations that spread fear for their personal gain, these factors are still at play to this day, and along with recent tragic events, they entrench a fear of everything deeper and deeper into American society. How can we overcome this culture of fear that is so widespread? There is no one simple answer, but it would go a long way if Americans paid more attention to what was said to them by the media, politicians, and corporations, and began to question the validity and intent of what they were saying. Americans should act when faced with tragic events like 9/11 and Columbine, and ensure that such horrors will not happen again. However they should be wary and not allow fear of these things to overtake their lives and drive them to take unnecessary and

extreme measures, measures that would only serve to make people more scared. Americans have lost sight of what President Roosevelt said in his inaugural address, and it would do this country some good to take a good long look at his famous words about fear.

Works Cited Cloud, John. "The Legacy of Columbine." Time.com. Time Magazine, 19 Mar. 2001. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. Connor, Tracy. "Bulletproof School Supplies Get Low Grades from Safety Experts." NBC News. NBC, 21 Aug. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Felson, Marcus, and Rachel Boba. Crime and Everyday Life. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2010. Print. Furedi, Frank. Culture of Fear: Risk-taking and the Morality of Low Expectation. London: Continuum, 2002. Print. Glassner, Barry. The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things. 10th ed. New York, NY: Basic, 2009. Print. Hanus, Julie. "Overcoming Fear Culture and Fear Itself." Utne. Ogden Publications, Jan.-Feb. 2009. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. Holman, E. Alison, and Roxane Cohen Silver. "Health Status and Health Care Utilization following Collective Trauma: A 3-year National Study of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks in the United States." Social Science & Medicine 73.4 (2011): 483-90. Print. Leinwand, Donna. "Violent Crime Rises for Second Consecutive Year." USA Today. Gannett, 24 Oct. 2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. "9/11 Attacks." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. Pinker, Steven. "Why Is There Peace?: The Science of a Meaningful Life. University of California Berkeley, 1 Apr. 2009. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Columbine Massacre." About.com 20th Century History. About.com, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

Sirota, David. "The Long-Term Legacy of 9/11." Salon. Salon Media Group, 26 July 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. "What Is the USA Patriot Web." Justice.gov. The United States Department of Justice, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.