{"id":27836,"date":"2014-03-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ashleydev.com\/2014\/03\/04\/a-little-fear-is-healthy-right-wrong\/"},"modified":"2020-08-27T11:41:19","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:41:19","slug":"a-little-fear-is-healthy-right-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cna.ca\/fr\/2014\/03\/04\/a-little-fear-is-healthy-right-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Fear is Healthy, Right? Wrong."},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Stewart<\/strong>
\nDirector, Policy and Research<\/em>
\nCanadian Nuclear Association<\/em><\/p>\n

A couple of my neighbours work in public health policy. She researches disease epidemics; he studies addictions.<\/p>\n

All three of us have good relationships with serious, informed, responsible media reporters. And we all share a common problem with the media when they aren\u2019t so professional.<\/p>\n

When some reporters call our offices, it\u2019s clear what they\u2019re after: The scary sound-bite. They want a few words, however out of context, that they can use to alarm readers about a fast-growing threat from that new virus, that new designer drug, or that remotely-possible accident or emission.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.\u00a0\u2013<\/b>\u00a0Andre Gide<\/i><\/p>\n

To him who is in fear, everything rustles.<\/b>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Sophocles<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

We share the experience of \u00a0spending a quarter or half hour giving thoughtful, calibrated answers that don\u2019t get taken up because they don\u2019t ring alarm bells. Instead, our least guarded phrase or our least discreet word is what\u2019s most likely to make it into the media.<\/p>\n

The next day we read, hear or see \u201cnews\u201d that\u2019s little more than pure fear-mongering. We experience media \u201ccoverage\u201d of epidemics that barely (or never) materialize, drug plagues that are exaggerated, and radiation dangers that don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t just affect us personally, through the frustration of seeing our knowledge dumbed down and distorted. It affects us as members of a society in which the information that reaches all of us is tilted toward fear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To him who is in fear, everything rustles.<\/b>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Sophocles<\/i><\/p>\n

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0Franklin Roosevelt<\/i><\/p>\n

There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.<\/b>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Michel de Montaigne<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

As a result, citizens demand solutions to fake threats. Those demands are put before governments and companies — often by the same reporters who trumped up the fake threats in the first place.<\/p>\n

Governments and companies, even when they know better, have to placate people, so they devote resources to these \u201csolutions\u201d to fake threats. And every year, society throws attention and resources \u2013\u00a0flu shots, tests, treatments, dietary changes, and pills that do negligible good \u2013\u00a0at things that only matter because we were briefly made to fear them.<\/p>\n

The trouble with this is that fewer precious resources are left for real threats. I, my neighbours, our colleagues and our organizations are left with lower capacity to reduce risks that might actually matter in a measurable and demonstrable way. Society ends up with fewer real solutions to real problems, and we are much worse off as a result.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.<\/b>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Samuel Butler<\/i><\/p>\n

The first duty of man is to conquer fear.\u00a0\u2013<\/b>\u00a0Thomas Carlyle<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fear is a lousy basis for making decisions. Fear-based decisions nearly always involve more sacrifice than benefit. Fear-based decisions are decisions against something, rather than decisions toward something, so we don\u2019t pursue our real values. And they lead to inconsistency, because we\u2019re likely to jump in a completely different direction next time we\u2019re afraid.<\/p>\n

This is why great leaders tell us over and over that we must not be governed by fear (or anger). Yet large parts of our society\u2019s information-gathering media seek out, and thrive on, fear (and anger).<\/p>\n

Because fear is based in ignorance, its defeat begins with the responsibility to inform ourselves. And that continues well after we\u2019ve heard from the reporters.<\/p>\n

Want to start? Next time a news item containing the word \u201cnuclear\u201d tries to push your panic buttons:<\/p>\n