Don't Feed the Fear

Lordy B, there is so much to be afraid of today. 30 minutes of nightly news can make me physically ill. And don't you love it when a commercial for the upcoming news will say something like, "Is your drinking water slowly killing you? News at 10" or "Is your house going to collapse on you in your sleep? Find out tonight."

Enough already!

We live in an age where information is constantly coming at us. I believe they call this the "information age." How 'bout that. But with the barrage of information coming at us, not all of it is worth of our attention. Some information is put out there that will cause a instinctual fear response. We always have to ask ourselves:

• What is the message?
• Who gains from this message?

I'll use my now-extinct teaching skills to demonstrate for you with an example. I believe the fancy education terminology is "modeling." Yes, I'm going to model for you, but no photos please.

Let's take a look at this October 2010 cover of Oprah magazine and see what key adjectives and nouns jump out.

• Superstar
• Power (2 times)
  
• Strength
• Energy
• Shine

If I had to sum up the message of this magazine cover, it would be "You are strong, and we can help you be stronger." The Oprah Magazine gains from this message, because what they clearly communicate with this cover is that they have information that can help us be better people. I really don't have much of a beef with that. Go forth, Oprah.

Listen to the adjectives and nouns used in the information you receive. If words like alarming, shocking, attack, invasion, plots, havoc, and disaster are found in a "call to action" piece, what are they really calling you to do? They're calling you to be afraid. Be very afraid. Some messages are certainly worth our concern. But be wary of news outlets and people you know who's persistent message is "This world is scary." Because right after they've convinced you to be scared, they're going to try to tell you what to do with your fear. Buy bottled water. Vote for so and so. Don't turn on your oven. Etc.

Fear does crazy things to us. It makes us imagine enemies where we have none. It makes us suspicious of each other. Fear is extremely successful at playing to our basic survival instincts which tend to make us very unhappy, terrified, uneducated people. Pay attention to the messages behind the information and see what you can find.