The Culture of Fear

Do you know your neighbors? When I was a kid, I knew all my neighbors’ names (children and adults), the adults’ occupations and even the pets’ names. I had been in all their houses. We spent time together. I would petsit for one of the families whenever they went on vacation. Now, I know one neighbor’s first and last name, but I know absolutely nothing else about her. I know another neighbor’s first name and her dog’s name, and I know she’s a teacher, but I know nothing else. I know another neighbor’s first name, and I knew his wife’s first name too, but I knew nothing else, and it occurred to me one day that I hadn’t seen his wife in months. She was gone. I have absolutely no idea if they got divorced or if she died. I don’t really feel comfortable asking.

There was another neighbor who was very friendly. I knew her first and last name. After some time I realized she had dementia. She did mention she had a daughter who lived not too far away. And at some point I realized that I hadn’t seen her in over a month. Her car was gone too. She never came back. I have no idea if she went to live with her daughter or in an assisted living facility or if she died. I never will know.

Other people I’ve talked to don’t really know their neighbors either. Like me, they say hi to the strangers they see (when they see anyone), and they might learn a few names, but nobody really knows anyone. There’s no sense of community.

A cultural shift

There’s been a cultural shift in my lifetime. People come home and watch the TV news, which focuses on sensational and violent crimes committed by individuals (murders, kidnappings, arson, armed robbery) and virtually ignores crimes committed by corporations (pollution, safety violations, embezzlement), which impact many more lives. Corporate media will never mention any topic that will offend a sponsor, i.e., a corporation, possibly one that committed the crime, possibly the same corporation that owns the network. (Can you say “Conflict of interest?”) Stories that show people protesting the status quo are downplayed and short-lived, and usually don’t even tell the story. Most protests are never even shown. Stories that show people supporting the status quo are repeated ad nauseam. People are more afraid of violent crime than ever before, even though rates of violent crime are the lowest they’ve been in years.

People are easily manipulated when they live in fear.

Corporations have a lot to gain by people living in fear. In 1997, America’s gun industry produced 3.6 million guns which wholesaled for more than $900 million. The US imported another 980,000 guns. Then there was the $430 million worth of ammunition. (Consumer Federation of America Foundation: America’s Gun Industry (PDF)) From 1990 to 2000, Americans spent over $42 billion on home security systems (installation and monitoring). The industry keeps on growing, with spending increasing 8.7% per year (Chicago Tribune, “A haven of safety” (a story that might have been more appropriately titled “Big Brother is watching you” -- and if you’re asked to register when you follow this link, keep in mind that they won’t know if you give them correct information or not)).

Corporations also have a lot to gain by people being disconnected from one another. If you know your neighbors well and are comfortable talking to them, if you don’t have a ladder and you use one very infrequently, when you do actually need a ladder you’d probably feel perfectly comfortable asking one of your neighbors who has a ladder if you can borrow it. But if you don’t know your neighbors, you wouldn’t even know who has a ladder and who doesn’t. It would never even occur to you to ask one of the proximal strangers if you can borrow a ladder. You need a ladder, you go to the store and buy one. In the first scenario, no one makes any money. In the second, a ladder is sold. Which do you think corporations prefer?

In many communities, people drive into the garage and enter the house from inside the garage. They don’t even get out of the car and walk from the car to the house outside. They feel much safer, never having to go outside. The outside world is a big, scary, dangerous place to them. They never talk to their neighbors. They might not even recognize them as their neighbors. Community is gone.

People lack empathy when their sense of community is gone. They care about themselves and their families only. Many people buy SUV’s because they’ve been told by advertisers that they’re “safer.” This isn’t true, of course. They’re much more likely to roll over than cars. But there’s another issue: safer for whom? Pedestrians and cyclists hit by SUV’s are far more likely to die than those hit by cars. When SUV’s hit cars, the occupants of those cars are also more likely to die than if they had been hit by another car. But the SUV owners don’t think of people they might hit when they think of “safety.”

People buy more and more material goods to try to fill the void they feel. Advertisers tell them if they buy these things, they will be happy. Instead they have a wealth of things that they worry about people stealing. They spend more money to “protect” their belongings. They would be happier if they just didn’t buy so many things in the first place.

Some people recognize that they would like to be able to feel free to go outside, and they would like to talk to their neighbors, but they still view the world with suspicion, so rather than have a security system for just their house, they have one for their entire neighborhood. They live in a “gated community.” The entire neighborhood has a wall around it, and everyone must enter and exit through a gate. Only residents and those they authorize may pass through the gate. The residents feel safe inside, knowing the riff-raff are kept outside. Living behind a wall? Having to pass through a gate? Isn’t this a lot like a prison? They’re not free at all. They just feel some slight camaraderie at home because everyone else in the neighborhood is also a prisoner. But hey, they’re safe!

Corporations actually like it when there are news reports of people being mugged for their product. You can’t buy that kind of publicity. People being robbed at gunpoint and forced to hand over their $200 shoes? The shoe corporation is giddy. Their product has been deemed the “have to have” shoe. People will be swarming to the stores.

Loss of unstructured time

Another cultural shift has occurred in my lifetime which is related. When I was a kid, I came home from school and just did homework or played outside or watched TV or read a book or did chores or hung around and did nothing until dinner time. In the summer, aside from the school and homework parts, my days were pretty much the same. I remember a few structured activities, but not very many. In 5th grade I took a swimming class that met once a week, but I think it was probably only for about 8 weeks or so. In 4th grade I took a dance class, but it seemed like all we did was walk around, so I didn’t continue with it. I was a Girl Scout from 2nd grade through 6th grade or so, but I can’t actually remember how often we met (whether it was once a week or once a month). I know I walked home from the meetings since they were just held after school. Occasionally our troop had activities other than the meetings, but not that often.

In high school I was in band, and through much of the year we had a weekly rehearsal session in the evening. During marching band season, we practiced at the football field which was half a mile from my house, and I walked to and from the rehearsals, as well as to and from the games we performed at. Once the football season was over, it was concert band season and we rehearsed at the high school which was several miles away. I usually got a ride with a neighbor who was also in band.

I suppose I might have had a Girl Scout meeting and a swimming lesson in the same week, or a Girl Scout meeting and a dance lesson. That’s the busiest I ever was. That was exceptional. For most of my youth, I never had more than one scheduled extracurricular activity per week. In the summer I had none.

I keep reading newspaper articles about children who have lessons and groups scheduled every day, often more than one a day. Their parents drive them from one to the other; their time is tightly scheduled. They have no unstructured time to just be.

They also have no time alone.

Some school districts do not even allow children to walk or bicycle to school anymore. Students must either take the school bus or be driven by a parent or guardian. School officials and parents both are so fearful of children being hit by cars or kidnapped (small risks), that they force the children to be sedentary, not letting them have the chance to incorporate exercise into their daily routine, which is the best way to ensure that they will make exercise a lifelong habit. Small wonder American children are getting fatter. Type 2 diabetes used to be called “adult onset diabetes,” but now it’s becoming increasingly common in children; hence the name change.

I walked to school up through 8th grade. I took a bus to school all through high school, but I walked half a mile to the bus stop. I also walked other places: to the library, to my friend Monica’s house, to the post office, pretty much everywhere I wanted to go really. I rode my bike occasionally, but my feet were really my main mode of transportation when I was growing up.

All the time I spent walking was time I spent alone with my thoughts. My mind had time to wander. I had time to ponder things and decide how I felt, what I really thought about things. My mind had time to be free from input. It had time to develop on its own, intellectually and philosophically. I’m sure I wouldn’t be the independent thinker I am today if I hadn’t spent all those hours alone walking. And my mind had time to go completely blank for the whole way home when that’s what I needed. Years before I ever heard of meditation, I was doing it.

Now, whether they’re driven from lesson to lesson or just driven straight home from school, children are commonly driven everywhere they go. They don’t have time to be alone. They’re kept on a short leash. When do they ever have time to think? When do they have time to ponder?

I see people today, and I don’t think they know how to be alone with their own thoughts. I think when they are alone, it makes them uncomfortable, and they have to quickly fill the silence. Most of the young people I see walking alone now are either wearing headphones or talking on a cell phone. They just don’t know how to be alone with their own thoughts. The quiet is foreign and unsettling to them.

I think they’ve lost something very dear. I think their parents have done them a disservice by driving them everywhere.

Their parents wanted to protect them because they feared for their safety. The media told them it was a big, scary, dangerous world out there, but as long as they drove themselves and their children everywhere in the largest vehicle they could buy, they would be safe, and as long as they bought lots and lots of stuff, they would be happy, and as long as they spent even more money to “protect” the stuff from bad people who wanted to steal their stuff, then they would be able to rest easily. Do bad things sometimes happen? Yes. Do people sometimes steal things? Yes, of course. But in their effort to protect their children from a potential danger (which had a very small risk), they have done real harm to their children’s physical health and intellectual and emotional development, and they have done real harm to the environment. In an effort to buy happiness, they accumulated clutter, depleted resources, often acquired debt, fueled bitter property disputes, and bought themselves a life of anxiety. To spend even more money on a home security system or a gun is not going to reduce the anxiety. It will only show that one lives in constant fear.