Illustration by Matt Mahurin for Newsweek
With our ever changing world there is one thing that is a constant. This constant is fear. Fear is one emotion that causes people to do irrational things. Whether you are afraid of spiders, clowns, or the next “super bug” we always seem to have this emotion creeping up. Fear leads us to do irrational things such as hurt ourselves or others. When you are afraid the most common response is flight or fight. Run away from the situation or do something to stop/change it. This response is seen in the nation time and time again. After the civil war there were Jim Crowe laws, during the industrialization era there were bans on immigration, and post 9/11 we went to war with another country. These were all caused by a gripping fear that plagues our nation and humanity.
With the media pushing their views on us at all angles do they control our fear? Do they use our fear to push us to do what they deem fit?
First of all, that picture is extremely creepy looking! I like your idea that the media uses our fear to push us to do what they want us to. I have never really thought about this before until now. It makes me think a lot about advertisement. It seems like they are always playing on our fears. Diet supplements and weight benches and programs play on our fear of being overweight and out of shape. Make-up and clothing companies play on our fear of not being "hot" and therefore not attracting someone of the opposite sex. Companies selling medicine play on our fear that we are unhealthy or that something is wrong with us... I have even read that often times advertisements selling medicine can make people believe that they have a symptom that they actually don't have. All these things play on our fear in order to get us to purchase a product..which seems wrong. However, maybe it is our fear that makes us such vulnerable targets. Like you said, fear is a constant. No matter how the world changes, we will always always always have fear!
ReplyDeleteFear among politicians is a major influence on American society. The early 1900's saw the prohibition of cannabis because it was popular with the Mexican laborers and people like Anslinger were afraid that it would spread to "us white folks", and the 1960's saw the illegalization of LSD. People had not committed crimes but when kids were taking the drug and essentially forming their own society, politicians were afraid that everything they had built toward was coming to an end and made the drug illegal. It seems that things as big as a political ethos and as small as trying new foods are affected by our fear of change.
ReplyDeleteI like what David said, because he started a new strain of thought about it towards the end of his comment. Fear is one of the prime factors that moves people to behavioral change, as you have so elequently implied. Fear goes far deeper than just political and legislative behavioral determination though. It roots its way deep into the subconscious of every human being. Maybe ask your self a few of these questions. Why do I eat from a clean plate? Why do I wear shoes? Why did I obey my father? I'd say that there are usually 2 possible answers to some of these questions, depending on who you are. But who are you? And who (generally)is everyone else?
ReplyDeleteLaynee- It is pretty interesting what you are saying about the market trying to make us fear things that should not be feared. In the past Sear’s catalog (one of the founders of advertisement) actually did make up conditions that are still used today. One of the most popular was when they named BO. Previously people had no idea what BO was. After this was introduced it was like a virus. No one wanted to be the one that had BO, thus driving deodorant sales through the roof. Today it does seem like people are playing off fears to sell their products. It seems like it is one sided almost, that they are focusing on women. Installing fears like this into young adults do you think is damaging people? Is this a major cause for depression among American youth?
ReplyDeleteDavid- It does seem like the American government is not down with change unless it benefits them. They seem to be more afraid of loosing their grip on people more so then change. The best way to control a mass of people is to make them afraid of something. As you mentioned above they did this by making us afraid of drugs. They fell back on people being afraid of things that they did not understand. It is not like they handed out LSD in mass quantities to people that were willing to try it… no way the government wouldn’t do that! People seem to be scared of things that they do not know about, but isn’t that how our nation started? People originally came here because of the frontier, or hopes of striking it rich. When did Americans start being so fearful?
Bender- The questions you ask do seem to play off fears while growing up. Everyone is afraid of their parents and what might happen if they do not listen to them. Is this fear learned though? Milgram did a study on babies by bringing animals near them. The babies seemed to not be afraid of these animals the first time he did this. He later brought the animals back but when the babies were interacting with them he would make loud clapping noises thus freaking out the babies. After conditioning them with this the babies soon were afraid of all fuzzy things not just animals, even without the loud clapping noises. The babies were taught to be afraid of these things because of the punishment of the noise. The last two questions you posted also seem to deal with this. Is who we are or what we are afraid of influenced by what we are surrounded by?
Wiggy, you asked when American's started becoming so fearful. I think it happened when we became the principle superpower in the world. Now, everyone is out to get us, right? We have to protect what we have created and conquered. Is there anything more scary than loss of power, loss of control?
ReplyDeleteIt's kinda scary, isn't it?