Yet another health hazard to worry about.

[rgraham666]

A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry identifies a new health hazard.

 

[neonlyte]

A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry identifies a new health hazard.

Rob, I don't know what to say... do people get paid money to do this research? If I've got to pick between the peanut and the terrorist... it's the peanut, every time.

How's about you and I get money for a study into the fear of falling over when bending down to tie shoe laces? That's got to worth 100K... at least. Helps with the siting of hospitals... could revolutionise the shoe lace industry... might even lead to a spin off business - cushioned wigs... imagine the marketing.

 

[cantdog]

Fear is the mind killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.

 

[rgraham666]

Even worse, cant. It's addictive. As are its close relatives anger and hate.

 

[cantdog]

You mean there's something comfy about it? Once you get, um, habituated?

 

[rgraham666]

Oh yeah. That whole flight or fight reflex kicks in. Massive doses of endorphins and adrenaline flood your system. It's a real rush.

I used to be an anger addict.

 

[oggbashan]

How come we survived the 1960s when the Russkies were about to nuke us at any time?

In the UK we would have had a four minute warning - long enough to kiss your ass goodbye (or as some women said at the time "Long enough for my boyfriend to start and finish having sex").

Or the early 1940s when German air-raids killed more UK civilians than UK soldiers died in battle?

If fear of terrorism is causing strokes in US citizens when the UK has been far more likely to be attacked for years, including the IRA campaigns, then perhaps "Supersize me" is a contributing factor.

Og

 

[Stella_Omega]

Homeland Insecurity. It's a booming business!

 

[Katyusha]

If fear of terrorism is causing strokes in US citizens when the UK has been far more likely to be attacked for years, including the IRA campaigns, then perhaps "Supersize me" is a contributing factor.

Og

I don't think the Supersize Me problem contributes very much. The U.S. is a society built on fear. It has to do with the reasons for the Revolution. The fear of a dictatorship and a government that exercises "unwarranted" control over its citizens is one of the driving ways that our government controls us. "This country is out to destroy our freedoms and our way of life." "Those people are a threat because they want to take away our way of living." And so forth. It's been that way for a long, long, LONG time and it's not going to stop anytime soon.

The reason terrorism is such an emotional/mental problem for us? Yeah, people fear dying a horrible death. I don't fear death, I fear the path I may have to take to get there. But two things are more fearful to Americans than dying at the hands of a terrorist: being maimed in such a way that we lose some, if not all, of our autonomy, and losing our freedoms. It's why our government talks about the terrorists ultimate goal being destroying democracy and destroying our economy. "They want to annihilate us," is not enough for Americans to get all riled up.

But living in fear of losing our freedoms at the hands of extremists, we've turned a completely blind eye to history and have forgotten that governments often use THAT type of fear as a means to control the populace and erode the freedoms that they have anyway.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

"Soylent Green is people! It's PEOPLE!!!"

This message was brought to you by the United States Government Inc.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Long-term fear and related stresses can kill any human being, I think-- not only Americans.

I can't find it, but I remember reading a report from Doctors Without Borders, about the kinds of health complaints they'd encounter in, say Bolivia, or anywhere lots of guerilla activity had been on-going. The people would complain about everything. "my eye waters, my left little toe is dry."

What they wouldn't complain about, and would discount in conversation, was the ever-present possibility of their entire village being massacred by one or another faction. But they were very fragile, psychosomatically-- a stomach-ache would put someone in bed for the whole day. And it didn't take much stress for people to simply break down for good...

 

[emap]

What Stella said, seriously you can make a person fear most anything if you phrase it correctly. Simply because the unknown is a major fear for most people, or the known in certain cases.

For example, people who have fallen large distances and lived usually have little desire to go back up that high or higher because they know what happens when you fall. Namely how much pain there is involved in the stop.

 

[cantdog]

I don't think the Supersize Me problem contributes very much. The U.S. is a society built on fear. It has to do with the reasons for the Revolution. The fear of a dictatorship and a government that exercises "unwarranted" control over its citizens is one of the driving ways that our government controls us. "This country is out to destroy our freedoms and our way of life." "Those people are a threat because they want to take away our way of living." And so forth. It's been that way for a long, long, LONG time and it's not going to stop anytime soon.

The reason terrorism is such an emotional/mental problem for us? Yeah, people fear dying a horrible death. I don't fear death, I fear the path I may have to take to get there. But two things are more fearful to Americans than dying at the hands of a terrorist: being maimed in such a way that we lose some, if not all, of our autonomy, and losing our freedoms. It's why our government talks about the terrorists ultimate goal being destroying democracy and destroying our economy. "They want to annihilate us," is not enough for Americans to get all riled up.

But living in fear of losing our freedoms at the hands of extremists, we've turned a completely blind eye to history and have forgotten that governments often use THAT type of fear as a means to control the populace and erode the freedoms that they have anyway.

I pretty solidly dispute nearly every idea in this post, Kat. It doesn't jibe with my experience, except in one way.

There are a whole lot of people out there who are indeed fearful.

I have never comprehended it, and no one whom I am licensed by sufficient acquaintance to ask is fearful or understands that widespread fear. They spin theories, some of them. But there's no consensus why.

The article points out right off the mark, for instance, that a fear of terrorist attacks here is silly in the extreme. There are hundreds of ways to become injured which are much more likely. To carry around a constant dread of something so vanishingly rare, to 'live in fear" because of it? No. That's just obsessive.

You are right, in that politicians seeking more control and power do point with alarm. But I don't go around afraid on that account, and I know no one who does.



So, since I don't get it and you do, you could be right. But I have never seen it.

 

[Guest]

Tuesday at work I received that Who is Barack Obama? email that's been going around lately. It's an attempt at creating a fear frenzy, pain and simple.

*sigh*