Voice of Reason: We fear the wrong things
Why is it that when we board a plane, we often begin to worry about a crash, but have no reservations whatsoever about hopping in the car for a drive?
The odds of dying in a plane crash in any given year are one in 380,000, while the odds of dying in an automobile accident in any given year are about 1 in 7,000. Compared to planes, cars are death traps, but we continue to drive. Funny isn’t it?
Walking in Friday night’s Relay for Life got me thinking about dying, which in turn got me to thinking about how I might die, which in turn got me to thinking about fear. And I’ve come to this conclusion: We fear the wrong things.
Speaking of cancer, you and I have a 1 in 600 chance of dying from some form of it this year. The odds are even worse for heart disease: 1 in 400. Should we be worried about this? You bet. Are we? Not really.
No, we’re worried about things like terrorist attacks, violent crime, contaminated Halloween candy, kidnappings, carjackings, West Nile Virus and the like – scary things, for sure, but things that happen so rarely, statically speaking, they are by far the exception rather than the rule.
As author Barry Glassner points out in his excellent book “Culture of Fear,” most people tend to underestimate the chances of a common event happening (car crash), but will overestimate the chance of a rare event (plane crash).
Much of the blame, Glassner notes, rightly falls on the media, particularly TV news. Operating under the motto “If it bleeds, it leads,” TV news, and newspapers to a lesser extent, would have us believe murders and other forms of extreme violence are apt to happen to any of us any given day.
In reality, violent crime has fallen some 40 percent over the last 10 years. Coverage of such crime, however, has increased 600 percent during the same time period, Glassner reports.
One of the media’s responsibilities, to be sure, is to inform the public of possible dangers. But the media should also make people aware of the true probabilities of such dangers actually happening. Instead we have a culture of fear, which preys on people’s fears in the name of ratings.
A prime example was the Anthrax scare, which occurred shortly after 9/11. Less than a dozen people actually died, but seemingly everyone was afraid to open mail.
On the other hand, 400,000 people die of smoking-related illnesses each year. No news story there.
But the media’s not alone in propagating a culture of fear. Much of advertising is based on it too (buy our product or the opposite sex won’t like you, you won’t be safe in your own home, etc.), as is politics, especially at election time. The Bush administration, for example, has expertly exploited people’s fears for political gain and I guarantee it will only get worse as November gets closer.
Terrorism is certainly a threat. But the chances of you or I dying in an act of terror are remote, despite what the administration would have us believe. Should we take precautions? Certainly. But we shouldn’t do things like invade and occupy Iraq on the grounds we might be attacked my Saddam’s (nonexistent) weapons of mass destruction.
It sounds cynical, but Bush and Co. know the more afraid we are, the less likely we are to question the war, the faltering economy, corporate scandals and the like.
It is estimated the war will cost American taxpayers over $200 billion. Imagine how much could have been done with that amount of money if we were truly interested in saving American lives.
We have no end of actual problems. Let’s worry about them instead.
(Will Stewart is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at education@southernstandard.com.)