We no longer unite against a common threat but suffer anxiety alone, says frank furedi |
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Contrary to expectations, we don't spend most of our lives worrying about terrorism. After 9/11 many believed an alarmed public would unite in support of its government against the external enemy. However, instead of unity, the war on terrorism has led to deep divisions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Today our fears appear to divide us rather than bring us together. It has not always been like this. Throughout most of human history fear has brought people together.
Communities were created precisely to provide mutual support against an external threat. At different times the fear of God, or of our ancestors, the plague, unemployment or nuclear war have bound society together down the centuries.
Today we fear alone and we are often preoccupied about very different threats. Some of us are obsessed with paedophiles, |
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In previous times those who felt threatened had
a shared system of meaning to make sense of their experience |
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others worry about global warming, crime or health.
Our fear market provides us with unsurpassed opportunities for feeling scared and our anxieties have become privatised. The language we use to express fear consists of idioms that are unspecific, diffuse and therapeutic. We are concerned about feeling 'stressed' or 'traumatised' or 'vulnerable'.
There are many reason why our fears have become so personal, the most important being the difficulty that we have in constructing a moral consensus about the threats we face.
In previous times those who felt threatened by unemployment or smallpox could draw on a shared system of meaning to make sense of their experience.
Today we lack the language through which we can share our fears. And when we fear without meaning, our experience is just as likely to isolate us as to bring us together. 
Prof Furedi is taking part in the NY Salon debate on the culture of fear at the New School, New York on March 20
FIRST POSTED MARCH 19, 2007
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