Elmo, 8/30

The “fear du jour” discussed in class is a term which I found very interesting and very applicable to our lives. It seems that whenever we turn on the news, pick up a magazine, or browse an online newspaper the headlines are always filled with fear. I personally feel that all I hear about these days is the “failing economy”, the “threat of swine flu”, or that I have a “75% chance of developing skin cancer in my lifetime”. The media has a way of instilling fear in the American people; it essentially dictates our daily lives. Hollywood also plays into this fear by producing scary movies by the dozen per year. People enjoy seeing these films because subconsciously we actually do enjoy being scared. Some days even the news seems to be its own mini scary movie. Because living in fear has become a part of our daily lives, there have become many ways in which to cope. There is more sunscreen being advertised than ever, talking about condoms and birth control are no longer a taboo, and terrorism has become a part of our everyday vocabulary. Even here on Rollins campus there is hand sanitizer around every corner in order to try and beat the swine flu outbreak. Our society has also become a very medicated society in which there seems to be a drug for everything so that it is easier for people to cope with their everyday lives. Society tells us we don’t have to feel the stress or pain of day to day life because there’s a drug for that. Being scared has become a normal feeling and when we turn to the media there is always the underlying curiosity of what the latest frightful issue may be. During and after class this week I thought a lot about this issue of fear and the “fear du jour”; I realized that fear really IS presented to us on a daily basis and it truly is all around us.