Paranoid America

This post was adapted from something that I had previously written.

Americans live in fear. The media picks up every threat to this country. To increase ratings, these threats are exaggerated and treated as a potential end of the world. Since Americans rely on the media for information, they embrace the exaggerations. Occasionally, the government will exploit the fear.

Y2K was a great example of how a problem can be overblown. The media was focused on the worst-case scenario, which wasn’t based off of reality. They insisted that every computer on earth would fail except for those that controlled nuclear weapons. A computer glitch involving the time on a computer was supposed to execute complicated programs that launched nuclear weapons without any user input. Many people responded to these scare tactics from the media by purchasing whatever they needed to survive after the collapse of society. Fortunately, most people had a bit more sense for this issue than some of the others that have shown up in recent years.

On September 11, 2001, the American media made it perfectly clear that the most powerful terrorist organization in existence is the American media. While the attack on New York was a tragedy, the media’s exaggerations and exploitation of Americans were inexcusable. The media used the threat of another larger imminent attack to make their viewers terrified of doing anything. Why did they do this? If Americans are scared enough, they will tune into the news each night to find out what activities could put them at risk of becoming the victims of the latest attack. By increasing the number of viewers, they can increase their influence over the population and increase advertising revenue. They are using fear to make money and feed their egos.

After the terrorist attack, the government decided to use the paranoia as an excuse to take away what little freedom American citizens have. They started setting up inland checkpoints for the border patrol. Just traveling within your state can result in innocent people being stopped without a valid reason. On top of that, we are no longer free to visit the northern portions of Cascadia without a passport or enhanced identification.

The worst examples of the government exploiting this country’s paranoia come from stories about the security at airports. I have heard that you can get put on a list of suspected terrorists if you lose a butter knife in your luggage. I have heard of multiple instances where little kids have been prohibited for flying because someone with the same name is on the no-fly list. Supposedly, you can even get in trouble for saying the wrong things. There are signs all over the place telling you not to tell jokes. What if you talk about a movie that bombed? While I have not heard of a problem like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if a passenger could get into legal trouble for someone eavesdropping on a conversation and only catching a single word out of context.

More recently, we have established that flying requires either a scan that shows your naked body to strangers or a pat down that’s a little too thorough. These things have done nothing to actually improve security. The government is treating us more and more like criminals simply because they can. When you look at the bigger picture, it becomes clear that the country is taking freedom away in the name of freedom by using the word “terrorists.” Most actions taken have nothing to do with terrorism.

While terrorism is still used from time to time, the media has been turning more and more to other problems such as the economy. The economy is weak right now. I’m not going to question that aspect of their reports. What I will question is the supposed need to entirely change our lives as a result. What was the driving force of the great depression? Panic. This is what the media has been trying to create. I honestly feel that the media has pushed us further into the recession.

I could go on about other issues that have been exaggerated and used to promote fear in American citizens, but this is not about individual issues. This country thrives on fear and will do anything to prevent that fear from fading. Americans have been playing into the media and government by overreacting to unrealistic threats. Let’s not put all the blame on the media and government. We should know better than to trust them.