The Culture of Fear

One of my favorite non-fiction sociological books is The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things by college professor Barry Glassner. Recently I revisited the text after the author released an updated edition. Loved it all over again, absolutely genius. Glassner picks apart so many unfounded erroneous beliefs.

Below are some of my favorite outtakes:

"More kids succeed in suicide attempts these days than in the past because more of them - about 60 percent - use guns."(55)

"According to criminal justice experts, a total of 200 to 300 children a year are abducted by family nonfamily members and kept for long periods of time or murdered. Another 4,600 of America's 64 million children (.001 percent) are seized by nonfamily members and later returned."(61)

"When teachers have been asked about the biggest problems in their schools, they responded with parent apathy, lack of financial support, absenteeism, fighting, and too few textbooks - not rape and robbery."(76)

"[Ritalin is] the drug of choice for kids who talk back, can't sit still, get in trouble, and are easily bored...with more than 11 million prescriptions written each year - up from 4.5 million in the early 1990s - this country uses five times as much Ritalin as the rest of the world."(77)

"More Americans use legal drugs for nonmedical reasons than use cocaine or heroin...More than half of those who die of drug-related medical problems or seek treatment for those problems are abusing prescription drugs."(131)

"[Prescription drugs] sends adolescents to emergency rooms more often than cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and LSD combined."(146)

"Reporters told again and again anecdotes about a woman who spilled McDonald's coffee in her lap and got $3 million...[Reporters] that bothered to check out the McDonald's case discovered that a judge reduced the $3 million coffee award to $480,000, not an ungodly amount considering the elderly woman had endured two hospitalizations and painful skin grafts, and the McDonald's had kept its coffee at a blistering 180 to 190 degrees."(173)

"[Since 1914] fewer than 13,000 people have died in airplane crashes. Three times that many Americans lose their lives in automobile accidents in a single year. [Probability] of dying in an air crash is about 1 in 4 million, the same as winning the lottery."(183)

"The vast majority of crimes against children and adolescents - sexual and otherwise - continue to be perpetrated by parents, relatives, and other adults the child or teen knows."(218)

"The most immediate and confirmable factor in most deadly crimes - access to firearms by people who should not have them - continues to be largely ignored in the coverage."(231)

"The total number of deaths from terrorist attacks worldwide in 2001 was 3,547 more than 3/4 on 9/11. About the same number of Americans died that year from drowning. Nearly three times as many died from gun-related homicides, and five times as many in alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents."(235)

"The government advised citizens in late 2001 to stockpile duct tape and rolls of plastic in order to seal their homes against chemical weapon attacks - despite the fact that experts knew these measure were probably pointless. Sin the risk of dying in a chemical attack is far less than a million to one, a person is more likely to die in a car accident en route to purchase the duct tape."(238)

And this is from Newsweek's BACK STORY:

"What Should You Really Be Afraid Of?"

[The following are yearly averages in the U.S.]

Murders (14,180)/Suicides (33,289)

Children Abducted by Strangers (115)/Children Who Drown in Pools (288)

Burglaries (2.2 million)/Identity Thefts (8.3 million)

Shark Attacks (28)/Dog Bites (4.5 million)

Americans Killed by Terrorist Attacks Around the World (33)/Americans Who Die From the Seasonal Flu (36,171)

Deaths by Allergic Reaction to Peanuts (50-100)/Deaths by Unintentional Poisoning (27,531)

Women Who Die From Breast Caner (40,170)/Women Who Die From Cardiovascular Disease (432,709)

Fatal Airline Accidents (321)/Fatal Car Crashes (34,017)

Americans Audited by the IRS (1.4 million)/US Deaths (2.4 million)