Fear is exhausting and bad for your health. I’m honestly tempted to leave it at that. It should be self-evident. But, security expert Bruce Schneier has a great post called Living in a Code Yellow World that talks about the culture of fear in USAmerica (that Stephen Harper is certainly trying to stoke up in Canada):
In the 1980s, handgun expert Jeff Cooper invented something called the Color Code to describe what he called the “combat mind-set.” Here is his summary:
In White you are unprepared and unready to take lethal action. If you are attacked in White you will probably die unless your adversary is totally inept.
In Yellow you bring yourself to the understanding that your life may be in danger and that you may have to do something about it.
In Orange you have determined upon a specific adversary and are prepared to take action which may result in his death, but you are not in a lethal mode.
In Red you are in a lethal mode and will shoot if circumstances warrant.
Cooper talked about remaining in Code Yellow over time, but he didn’t write about its psychological toll. It’s significant. Our brains can’t be on that alert level constantly. We need downtime. We need to relax. This is why we have friends around whom we can let our guard down and homes where we can close our doors to outsiders. We only want to visit Yellowland occasionally.
Since 9/11, the US has increasingly become Yellowland, a place where we assume danger is imminent. It’s damaging to us individually and as a society.
The individual damage is bad, but the societal damage is brutal. Schneier’s post is full of examples. Here’s one:
Last December former DHS director Tom Ridge wrote about the security risks of building a NFL stadium near the Los Angeles Airport. His report is full of movie-plot threats, including terrorists shooting down a plane and crashing it into a stadium. His conclusion, that it is simply too dangerous to build a sports stadium within a few miles of the airport, is absurd. He’s been living too long in Yellowland.
The post is littered with links to other stories and resources; lots of stuff to read if you’re interested in this topic.
3 responses to “Living in a Culture of Fear”
It’s easier to return to Whiteland when you shut off the news, media , etc I recommend unplugging yourself from the electronic world every now and then for one’s peace of mind.
Isabella Polimeni liked this on Facebook.
That does help. It also helps to expose yourself to other voices that call into question the fear-based narratives so common in most media