Bill Calhoun

Fear as Entertainment

With the recent scares about airline safety, the discussion has come up (again) about the use of fear as a way to manipulate and exploit people. Here's an example of such a discussion from Glenn Greenwald's blog:

Personally, I don't blame anyone for having irrational thoughts and fears prior to flying. Our brains generate irrational fears in all sorts of different situations, and particularly with the fear-mongering and relentless media hyping of every rumored terrorist threat, it is hardly surprising that people will have these thoughts.

But the point here is best illustrated by analogy. "Courage" is not the absence of fear, but is instead the taking of action notwithstanding that fear. Identically, "rationality" is not the absence of irrational fears or thoughts, but is instead the choice not to allow those fears and thoughts to dictate behavior. The blame lies not with those who entertain such fear, but with those who allow it to govern their conduct, and more so, those who purposely stoke and exaggerate those fears due either to their own fears and/or because doing so is to their advantage.

Why does it seem so easy to agitate people, thoughtful, well-meaning people, with fear? One explanation is often overlooked – fear is entertaining.

Actually, any strong emotion can be entertaining. People enjoy the stimulation of a strong emotion even if the emotion (or the event that triggered it) is regarded as negative. This is, of course, a built-in attribute we share with many animals. My dog once quite dramatically charged a plastic lawn deer until she realized it wasn't going to move. I was pretty embarrassed (my vicious little doggie!) but she wasn't. She wagged her tail and was obviously invigorated and pleased by the whole event.

We are entertained by fear when we watch a scary movie, or ride a roller coaster, or imagine terrorists sitting next to us on the plane. Television provides such a wealth of entertaining fear, especially on the news, that I call it The Fear Machine. We seek out such entertainment, and actually invite specialists (entertainers, salesmen, politicians) to entertain us. If we train ourselves (through, say, daily television viewing) to expect constant entertainment, we can become obsessed. We can actually believe that something isn't important or serious or necessary unless it is entertaining. We work to extract entertainment out of our most mundane, or most sublime, experiences, and in the process miss out on more subtle, important benefits. You can eat candy for dinner – it entertains your mouth plenty, but don't expect any nutrition.

So yes, fear mongers can manipulate and exploit us while we are occupied by our fear, but don't discount our own role in accepting and asking for fear mongering, and in maintaining an environment where fear is valued for its entertainment quality.

by Bill Calhoun