Fearful Americans America's Misplaced Fears Essay

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What might cause this are wary expectations, a sense that new things are coming and a fear of the unknown. Of course, a fear of the unknown has been a part of many societies since the beginning of time. It was because of this that explorers were often afraid to go into uncharted waters and legends surrounding what lay at the end of the map were prominent. But Glassner argues that the fear of the wrong things can't be explained by the calendar alone. Instead, he argues that another explanation is the news media, which tends to fixate on disasters. He gives examples of news networks creating fear about incidents that actually happen very infrequently, such as Barbara Walters' creating a panic over fires on operating tables -- a rare incidence.

One of Glassner's theories can be evaluated quite easily, as the new millennium has already come to pass. Despite the fact that the world is no longer facing a major shift in the calendar, people still seem to be afraid of the wrong things, such as terrorism and disease.

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Today, terrorism seems to be the number one fear among Americans. Even though there have been no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001, people still live in fear, even going so far as to buy office chairs fitted with parachutes and other devices that could help them in the event of a terrorist attack. In addition, people are often afraid of diseases such as Autism, Cancer, and most recently the Swine Flu, although it is rare that they would be infected with them. These fears seem to fit Glassner's second explanation, although not his first. The news media's coverage of topics such as terrorism and diseases like the Swine Flu certainly worsened these fears. Thus, in order to determine why Americans still fear the wrong things, perhaps we must first look to the news.

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