Are You Scared Yet?
Do you remember the fable of the bored shepherd boy who entertained himself by repeatedly crying ‘wolf’ to alarm the villagers. When a real wolf appeared he cried ‘wolf’ but no one paid him any attention and he perished between the jaws of his predator.
Are we all going to die? 110 million people live in Mexico, 20 people have died of Swine Flu as of this writing. 300 million people live in the U.S., none have died of Swine Flu as of this writing. If you live in Mexico, your chances of dying of Swine Flu is 1 in 5.5 million. You have a much better chance of choking to death on a hot dog.
A few years ago we were all going to die of Ebola. I don’t know of anyone who died of Ebola, do you? We were all going to perish from AIDS. Many have died of AIDS but it seems to exclusively affect those who are homosexual or share needles. It doesn’t seem to be a threat to the general population. And then there was the West Nile Virus. I actually heard of one person in my community of 200,000 people who contracted this disease. But the widespread fear that Americans were going to die by the thousands never materialized.
Why the public hysteria? Is the sky really falling? Haven’t we heard the cry of “Wolf” many times before? I suppose it would be more dangerous to underestimate a dangerous virus than to exaggerate its ability to devastate.
I still remember participating in ‘nuclear bomb’ drills when I was a child. One day California is going to fall off into the Pacific Ocean when the big one comes. Millions were convinced that life as we know it would end with the Y2K crises of 2000. The predicted SARS pandemic predicted in 2003 never materialized. The terrorists anthrax attack was more powdered sugar than anthrax. Mad Cow disease was going to make us all crazy.
I’ve heard the ‘wolf’ cry so many times I’m numb to all the fear mongering. Fear is an emotion that helps us to preserve ourselves in times of danger. Will we feel any fear at all when the real wolf appears?
Do you remember the fable of the bored shepherd boy who entertained himself by repeatedly crying ‘wolf’ to alarm the villagers. When a real wolf appeared he cried ‘wolf’ but no one paid him any attention and he perished between the jaws of his predator.
Are we all going to die? 110 million people live in Mexico, 20 people have died of Swine Flu as of this writing. 300 million people live in the U.S., none have died of Swine Flu as of this writing. If you live in Mexico, your chances of dying of Swine Flu is 1 in 5.5 million. You have a much better chance of choking to death on a hot dog.
A few years ago we were all going to die of Ebola. I don’t know of anyone who died of Ebola, do you? We were all going to perish from AIDS. Many have died of AIDS but it seems to exclusively affect those who are homosexual or share needles. It doesn’t seem to be a threat to the general population. And then there was the West Nile Virus. I actually heard of one person in my community of 200,000 people who contracted this disease. But the widespread fear that Americans were going to die by the thousands never materialized.
Why the public hysteria? Is the sky really falling? Haven’t we heard the cry of “Wolf” many times before? I suppose it would be more dangerous to underestimate a dangerous virus than to exaggerate its ability to devastate.
I still remember participating in ‘nuclear bomb’ drills when I was a child. One day California is going to fall off into the Pacific Ocean when the big one comes. Millions were convinced that life as we know it would end with the Y2K crises of 2000. The predicted SARS pandemic predicted in 2003 never materialized. The terrorists anthrax attack was more powdered sugar than anthrax. Mad Cow disease was going to make us all crazy.
I’ve heard the ‘wolf’ cry so many times I’m numb to all the fear mongering. Fear is an emotion that helps us to preserve ourselves in times of danger. Will we feel any fear at all when the real wolf appears?
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