The frightening of society

I was in my car earlier when a PSA came on the radio which disturbed me. It said things like "I am the reason your 7th grader can't sit still." "I am the cause of a 5-yr old's rage." and a lot of other things concerned with emotional behavior and violence. It was designed to disturb and frighten.

At first I thought it was some kind of PSA about child abuse or sexual molestation, then it came to the end and I realized it was a PSA about...lead paint. I think it was called "If Your Walls Could Talk." It was extremely creepy, and it got me to thinking about fear, and how our society seems to live in a constant state of fear, and how fear is used as a tool more and more every day.

Like we don't all already know that happens, lol.

I know fear is probably the most powerful tool one can wield (some will argue that love is, I know, but IMHO fear is a more sure weapon), and that it is wielded constantly by the government, ad agencies, etc etc. But this creepy PSA made me realize just how pervasive the culture of fear is. I started thinking of all the things we are told every day we should be afraid of, and I was appalled. Some things were blatant and in-your-face (terrorists under the bed, for example) but some were so subtle that I hadn't really realized a message was being pushed.


So I wondered, how many official fear campaigns can you think of?

Terrorism.

Communism before that.

Economy...

Republican/Democrat dichotomy...

Muslims...

there are to many to list, fear is in the media everyday, with the risk of this and risk of that, from medicine to food, to the risks with the weather, the met office has issued a warning. terrorists and 'dangers' of flying, crime etc.

the media is number 1 when it comes to story after story of things we should all be worried about.

fear is the driving force for what stories are ran at the top of the program, but they bring us back down again, just so we do not start to panic with a nice puppy being rescued story, they always work.

Islamic Terrorism

Global Warming

and Swine Flu

I've been paying attention over the past couple weeks, and here are some of the fear campaigns I hear:
Here are just a handful of things that I have heard over...and over...and over...and over...JUST on the radio, over the last few days.

be afraid of---
lead paint (they have some kind of lead paint PSA campaign going on right now I guess);
losing the data on your computer (big push for online data storage...interesting);
identity theft;
having a stroke;
not being able to pay for your own funeral;
aging;
cancer;
heart attack;
losing your retirement fund;
osteoperosis;
menopause;

I think I am going to make a project of this, and for a week, make a not of EVERY scare-tactic I see/read/hear on the radio, tv, website ad, or out and about in the world (like they flu shot hype @ the drug store). We're so inured to the fear-tactics that we don't even notice half the time, and I think even I may be shocked at what I find.

reply to post by riiver


there are some that are not advertised as openly as say fear of cancer etc. the major one that most are in fear of is what other people think.

what will they think if i go outside wearing pink, what will they say if i tell (fill in blank), i cannot say that, people will think i'm weird or stupid etc etc.

the fear of what people think is a biggy that controls our lives and stops us being us, and just another sheep following the herd through fear of being disapproved off.

keep an eye out for how the media use this to their advantage as well as in advertising.