Society has nothing to fear but fear itself and the bird flu pandemic
I was flipping through the channels on my TV one night last week while preparing to dive into some Picante Beef Top Ramen. Before settling on Comedy Central for another hilarious episode of Family Guy, I passed CNN. I watch CNN from time to time, but usually I only have the stomach to view it in small doses. Well, this time I was glued to the colorful box as a new topic was being discussed. The topic was that of the bird flu. This new disease is carried from bird to bird until someone decides they feel like a chicken sandwich and they become extremely ill with possible fatal outcomes.
My first response to the bird flu was fear. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, who is to say my plump turkey isn’t infected? Not only that, but now it is suspected that the disease may not only be passed from bird to bird, but from person to person. While only a few deaths have been reported in the Eastern hemisphere, the bird flu is striking fear into the hearts of people all over the world. What a horrible occurrence, I thought to myself. This bird flu is putting innocent people in the captivity of fear when real danger may not even be present.
Then I thought back and realized this is not the first time people have been stricken with fear for a questionable reason. Every hurricane or tropical storm that has ever occurred has received large amounts of media attention. Reporters across the nation brave the somewhat treacherous weather conditions to report on incoming hurricanes that turn out to be a lot less than what they were made out to be. Then one finally comes that is the real deal and people blow it off as another “media-who-cried-wolf tale” and destruction follows.
In the year 1999, I was the bright, young age of 13. For several months leading up to the new year, all I heard of was the Y2K bug. All computers will shut down, people would say, planes will fall from the sky and life as we know it is in jeopardy. The year 2000 came, and all that ended was a decade filled with “Full House” and bad music.
Now there is the dreaded color-coded terrorism alert chart of red, orange, yellow and green colors that predict the next domestic terrorist attack. This little mechanism is just another way to keep the element of fear in our culture. I mean, what is an average citizen of the United States expected to do when the alert jumps from yellow to orange? While there may be another attack, what is the point of being paralyzed with fear?
I believe is was Franklin D. Roosevelt who said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” and this saying rings even more true today. All over the country people are living in fear. Fear of terrorism, fear of the bird flu, fear of their next-door neighbor, but what is there to be afraid of? There is always something right around the corner that is going to wipe out all of humanity, but nothing ever comes. So when the next epidemic comes that plans to end the world, you can count this columnist out of the nation-wide freak-out session.
Adam Strong is a sophomore majoring in business. Comments can be sent to adamstrong@cc.usu.edu.