Though we have not yet delved into the full meaning of postmodernism, our current culture of fear is clearly a part of it. I always find it interesting to view the things we take for granted critically and question why we take them for granted and what effect this might have on us. Day to day, I don't think of myself as living in a constant state of fear; I rarely think about the dangers of what I'm doing, I never think that perhaps I should be doing something else right now because the world could end, and I have never given a second thought to a newspaper article or TV program about the Avian flu. However, all of these threats and fears must have some impact on the psyche of my generation, even if we can't identify on a daily basis.
Intuitively, one would think that, being surrounded by apocalyptic threats and dangers around every corner, people today would be scared of just about everything. However, I would argue that, at least from my own observation, the reverse effect has taken place. People are less scared and take threats less seriously than ever before. For almost forty years now we have had nuclear missiles pointed at us, flues have threatened us that are capable of wiping out entire populations, global warming and ozone depletion have been turning our once lush environment into an inhospitable wasteland, etc. Yet, through it all, we're still here - at least in America. We have been told time and time again that we're going to die, yet we're still alive. Perhaps for earlier generations who didn't live with these constant threats, there is reason to fear and think twice. For our generation though, these constant fears and annoying threats are just something our parents do and we can't take seriously. We have become so used to being told things could kill us, yet they never seem to, that even serious threats just seem like another obnoxious news story.
A sort of "boy who cried wolf" effect has taken place for our generation. The problem here is not that we live in a constant state of fear like past generations, it is that we have very little fear, even for things that we should take very seriously. It is hard to take any particular threat very seriously when we have heard all of those things before.
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Your post on living in a state of fear is very interesting. I never really thought about fear in our culture having a reverse effect on people. We do hear that everything will kill us and everything is bad for us to the point where I can see how many people would ignore it all. I think this links with what Dr. Rog said about Bill Clinton. When he said, "I did not have sex with that woman" we instantly believed that he was lying. We have moved from certainty to indeterminacy.
-Starfish
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