The Simple Mistake That Could Cost Your Life
And of course, if you don't tune in to Eyewitness News on channel 5, you'll never know what it is, and you could DIE. (cue screeching violins from Psycho)
What is it with all the fearmongering on the local news? Every commercial I see for the news lately is some kind of ominous teaser about dangerous medications, home repair horror stories, deadly insect invasions, or how your next-door neighbors are most likely plotting to kill you.
Is it any wonder that people are so depressed by the news anymore?
When I was young, I got my paranoia and fear from the back-of-the-toilet copy of the Reader's Digest. That's where I learned all about the symptoms of every major disease, including some very rare ones. I also learned the signs for a heart attack and glaucoma. I also learned that any time you go out to sea on a small boat, you're probably going to be lost and have to drink your own urine and fight off sharks at some point.
Finding out that there were so many things to be afraid of was just one huge, vicious cycle. It opened me up to the possibility that there were all kinds of other things—diseases and military weapons and natural disasters—that I might not currently know about, that could kill me. In my young life, I already had enough anxiety over cancer, heart attacks, house fires, dogs, and thunderstorms. I didn't know if I could handle any more.
I kept thinking that knowledge—information—would relieve my fears. But the information just kept getting worse and worse. This was one big, scary world and no one was safe.
Now I'm old and those scary things still exist, as well as a whole crop of new scary things we didn't even imagine in the late half of the 20th century. But somehow, I'm finally okay with that. Things don't scare me much anymore. Sure, I'm concerned about things, but that pounding, gut-wrenching panic isn't there.
I guess I look at it like this: It's just life, and no one gets out alive.
Obey gravity—it's the law.
1 comment:
I started reading "The Culture of Fear," which talks about this exact problem, but it just made me angry. And it was written pre-9/11, so it didn't cover all the current political fear-mongering that drives me insane. Like you I'm easily freaked out, and it makes me crazy how people try to play on my fears to get me to improve their ratings or vote for their agendas.
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