The 2016 election and its aftermath has deepened a culture of fear in the United States. A few years ago it was about Ebola, vaccines, Zika and child predators. Now it’s about fear of the future, the other, the economy and, most of all, fear of change.
Author and freelance journalist Sasha Abramsky talks to WhoWhatWhy’s Jeff Schechtman about how this modern fear is being augmented and boosted by political leaders, media outlets and fringe groups as a way to provoke conflict, raise money and control special interests.
Abramsky explains how odd it is that we don’t fear big things like nuclear threats and climate change, but that instead it’s the small fears that are used, in conjunction with the media, to amplify the “fog of fear.”
Conquering these fears is of key importance, Abramsky argues: “In finding a way to navigate out of that fear, that paralysis, we can move toward a healthier way of living and a calmer and less vengeful idea of community.” Abramsky writes in his book Jumping at Shadows, and tells Schechtman, that breaking through this fear may be the defining challenge of our time.
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Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from shadows (Marco / Flickr – CC BY 2.0).
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