Foolish Fears and Who Generates it

I heard an interview by Diane Reem of Daniel Gardner who is a journalist from Ottawa Canada and has written an intriguing book called "THE SCIENCE OF FEAR".

In it he debunks the huge number of fears we all live with that are generated by a fear culture in the western world. Mostly by media.

Notes from radio interview with author:

- Flying is much safer than driving.

- Each year, more people drown in swimming pools in the U.S. than all the people in the entire world die in terrorist attacks.

- 41,000 people in the U.S. and Europe die from radon gas every year. (Many homes have naturally occurring radon gas in them.)

Who benefits from fear, irrational or not? Advertisers and companies that make products and services, politicians, governments, the military industrial complex, etc.

But, it is not a secret group or cabal. It is something many good people engage in, rationalize, to sell things usually, to make a living. Cognitive dissonance comes along eventually though.

Author also talked about how, in the greater history of humans, things like news and photography and modern life, is a speck in time compared to the thousands and millions of years of evolution our current minds are based on. So, when we saw a wild animal kill a human long long ago, we see it with our own eyes and, avoid those wild animals. Fast forward to modern day when we “see” an event, like murder, on the evening news. Well, we saw it, so, murder is common and a threat to me. Of course, it isn’t.

It's a great interview. You can listen on line to it here. And here is a short review of the book.

Here is a transcript of an interview.

I think if you know someone who lives in fear this might be a good book for them.