Barry Glassner’s The Culture of Fear Essay

The murder of thousands of Ameri dismisss on their bear soil on September 11, 2001 created a new era in unify States History the era of alarm. That is the finding Barry Glassner, causation of The finale of precaution Why Ameri kittys be Afraid of the Wrong Things. In the arrests pages is found a extreme examination of wherefore Americans atomic number 18 veneratefulnessful, wherefore they argonnt, and what this labels ab bring show up the average citizen. It is not to affirm that Glassner indicates that Americans do, or should, live in hero-worship of unheralded terrorist con decennaryd. quite, his purpose in paper is to illuminate why it is that Americans fear the defile things and work to act on the properly fears he cites posers much(prenominal) as fearing shootings on school grounds, however not ad advancedeousment access to guns. In other words, he is attempting to describe what fear is like in the ending of America and what it says ab extinct public and perception. That is his thesis. Summed up, Glassner writes that when it comes to fear, Americans live in a culture of false paranoia and irrational paradoxes. His methodology comes d peerless clearly.He utilizes individual case studies to coherently and cohesively build a strong incorporate theory. each(prenominal) story and snuff itic becomes one much than than brick in the foundation of his thesis. In that way he easily compels and convinces e very hardly the al well-nigh cynical contributor. Fin eachy, it is Glassners omen of view that objectively working wonders. He acts as if he is just now a casual, though analytical, objective observer. What Does the get downning Have to Say? Fear can be created and manipulated. Time and again Glassner returns to the drill of the events of September 11, 2001 for treasures with which to bolster his theory.It is indeed mellow ground for that. It seems to be the case nurture for just why American citizens argon p aranoid for all of the wrong reasons. Yes, the terrorist attacks were awful, and all the more so be event 1) they were completely unexpected and unannounced, and 2) they targeted the innocent civilian populace. That being said, writes Glassner, they were similarly completely anomalous. The fear of such an attack in the future due to the concomitant that it transfer once before is unjustifiable.It had been two vitamin C and twenty-five years from the beginnings of the United States for such an attack to occur, and as of this tenth day of remembrance edition of the handwriting it has been another ten years with unwrap such attack. Sure, that is not to say that it couldnt knock again. However, the point that the creator makes is that it is just circumstances like this that are fertile breeding ground for manipulators. In this case, he cites the then ongoing efforts of professorship George W. Bush to convince the population that on that point was an active war on terror.This w ar, he reminded frequently, was directed at the American citizen, the florists chrysanthemum and pop on the street. The war could relegate every home, every business. The entire sphere was under various alert conditions at all times. This supports the first main point of The Culture of Fear. Fear can be a force of manipulation and creation. The assist point of the book is closely colligate to its main premise. It is the ongoing effects of a mass media accentuating the most unlikely of crimes. to each one and every day the media, including the press, the internet, and the television networks, blares out stories of kidnappings, murders and more.The chief aim seems to be that it could happen to you. In incident, it probably will happen to you unless you prepare precautions daily. Fingerprint your children. Update your photographs and alveolar records. Plant microchips in your childrens skin. Anything to do to escape the boogeyman, because undoubtedly hes out there. Never mind the fact that more often than not, the statistics behind the reports are skewed mightily to prove these points ex post facto. The announcements alone are substantiation enough for most people. The culture of fear is encouraged, and bought into.After all, the media is a powerful presence. When it comes to the ternion point, it becomes mostwhat murky as to how some things come about. Glassner relates example after example of public indemnity responses to these scenarios and how they perfectly fail to deal with the actual situations that spawn the fear. In other words, ineffective public policy is the knee jerk reception to fear. The pen is quick to relate such failures. He points out the sheer number of dollars allocated to these efforts and the floor statistics that show the problem has not changed at all.Also, he is not shy at pointing out that this culture of fear and reception provides great policy-making opportunity for candidates that are tough on crime to emerge, i nstal to raise the banners of various well- look oning causes. one time the candidates become elected officials, both the cause is dropped along with its passion, or new laws are passed that in essence are just excuses to spend money and advance political careers. Criticism of the Author I greatly enjoyed this book. I will be haughty about that. maybe it biases my review, but I do shed points to support my response.To begin with, the book is well-paced. By that I mean to say that it reads well. Much of non-fiction pauseicularly meliorate and researched non-fiction is dry, and fails to engage the referee in the guts that its subjects remain remote. Granted, Glassner has a subject that is more than more accessible to readers than the typical tome, but he does not bore with statistics or inane stories. He moves the action right along by showing readers why this involves them, and why it should subjectively interest them. Each chapter begins with a premise that is readily u nderstandable.It similarly includes a counterpoint and then the cheer begins. Every chapter delivers. There is a natural satisfaction to this and makes reading the book enjoyable. I never experienced a more well planned out book, in this regard. I was never leave question why something was missing, or what the authors point was after all. He provides vignettes that most every reader either has intimacy of, or direct experience with. In that regard, the book almost reads like a continuous narrative, full of intrigue and individualised connections. What surprised me in particular were the findings of the author.He clearly exposed the myths behind frequently of the countrys fears fears that turn out to be to the highest degree entirely mistaken or so improbable as to be almost laughable. Then he does something important and which caused my surprise. He listed the fears that all Americans should really be concerned with. These are the issues that most citizens will encounter on a daily basis and should be big their attention rather than the stories at the top of newspaper compass pointlines. Motor vehicle injuries, drowning, fires, head injuries to children from bicycle accidents, these are the realities of danger in America.And these can be prevented. Safer vehicles, more confining drivers licenses, and bicycle helmet laws these are the tools of the fearful citizen that can bring some peace to life. I never thought that Glassner would make such a strong point out of such mundane information. It made me requisite to actually change my personal breathing styles, and not in the manner of invest in gas masks or bunkers. Naturally, the book is not perfect. Probably the greatest helplessness is the ability of it to be dismissed as a big goernment bashing book. It could be accused of having an agenda.It is fairly heavy handed when it comes to discussing the media and the governments efforts at propagating fears among the population. Perhaps Glassner could have helped himself some by providing statistical analysis of actual terrorist linked events over the course of the century. This may have more convincingly pointed out just how anachronous the terror attacks of Fall 2001 really were, and remain. Rather than describe the governments reaction to it, he could have simply left it at that and trusted the reader to repulsion his or her own conclusions.But that is a small point. One area that could have been covered differently is that chapter on youthfulness at Risk. With a subtitle of awry(p) Diagnoses and Callous Cures one would expect that it would be a medically related chapter. therefore that it is. However, I feel that the chapter rather disregards the distributive depression and angst that this generation seems to be finding themselves in. It would appear at least from habitual experience that these troubles which are leading to more and more suicides and bullying are real and worth a unsafe look.It is not as if Glassn er just glosses over these things, but I think that his overall take on the situation is not serious enough. He instead appears to have it out for the medical establishment. Some could say that this trivializes the problems that teens nowadays are undergoing. I think that would be an accurate indictment. The chapter could either have been more aimed that direction, or perhaps could be eliminated only as a general fear among the United States population at large. substanceBarry Glassners book The Culture of Fear is one to be read. It is quite lite to recommend. Primarily it is because the books reference is also the general population. Every reader would know a potential reader in a neighbor, co-worker, relative. Glassner makes his point very clear the culture of fear is absolutely pervasive. We are all a part of this society that lives in near eternal paranoia over things that probably will never happen and we ignore what we probably should fear on a daily basis.That is what is so ultimately compelling about the book. It is nearly a handbook for peaceful living. The Culture of Fear makes promises through its introduction and its chapter titles, and it delivers. The prose is terse and clearly understandable. The scenarios, likewise, are situations in which nearly every reader can either imagine, or has actually experienced. This lends an instant pledge and trustworthiness to the book. And after all, where there is current authority, there is careful consideration of fears itself.