British society is riven by misplaced fear, and it’s the media’s fault
The recession, like terrorism, is part of Britain’s new “fear society”, where mass media works to scare people into believing the situation is much worse for them than it probably is.
By Tom Oldfield on Friday, January 30th, 2009 - 939 words.
I’m not an economist and I do not usually start anything with an opening line about financial fluctuations. But I have been struck these past months by the scale of the talk concerning our apparent mass doom. The British population and possibly much of the world outside is heading for catastrophe; an economic conflagration that has been consuming the world since the somewhat rosy age of mid-2007.
It is almost impossible not to be affected by the rampant gloom and lugubrious nature of the current state of the economy — its forecasted trajectory (down in flames) is paraded as happy truth. I often listen to the talk and diatribes that circulate around me, to clients, friends and associates. The words ‘terrible’, ‘dire’ and ‘unprecedented’ are omnipresent.
Large-scale crises always have a profound effect on the mood of the nation. This is often through a combination of simultaneously-occurring psychological phenomena. Not least of these is fear and uncertainty. Yet, contemporary events have shown that this fear and uncertainty often now outstrips the crisis itself.
Two major instances of this in recent times support such a conclusion. Is it too extreme to see parallels between the threat of terrorism and the present financial crisis? Both seem to revolve around fear, a fear of how individuals perceive the future. In the case of the former it was clandestine terrorist cells, Saddam’s supposed threat or a dangerous new weapon that could be used in this country. While in the case of the latter it is the predictions of a deep recession or that there will be three million out of work by March. Both are real, I have no doubt, and both are unique in their effect on the British population. In turn, both also present unique challenges in the way in which that population must respond. However, it would seem that both issues generate far more panic and fear than can realistically be justified given the evidence at hand.
Recently, the BBC ran a news piece stating that the psychological effects of the economic downturn were unprecedented. That people who had not seen any direct economic impact were still extremely worried about the possibility of it. Now this is not to say that their worry is misplaced; many who may have thought their jobs were secure at Christmas might be clearing their desks this Friday afternoon. But the issue here is the inflated sensitivity to the idea that disaster is just around the corner, despite facts to the contrary.
The fear of terrorism, as individuals like Adam Curtis have shown, presents the same exaggerated sensitivity. Terrorism, while being a threat, was and is nowhere near the omnipresent danger, the ‘knife-edge’ society that the level of panic seemed to suggest. It is always worth repeating that we have only suffered one major terrorist attack by Islamic fundamentalists since 2001. Terrible though this was, it is weak justification for the level of fear that still pervades British society.
But why in both instances was this the case? Why was more being made of these threats than was actually warranted? These questions are not easy to answer. Certainly concerning terrorism, the apparent threat has been used to legitimize an increase in the power of government and the police in our lives — ID cards, SOCPA (Serious Organised Crime and Police Act), and the recently defeated 42 days without trial legislation being obvious examples.
However, with the economic downturn and the level of psychological impact on the British public the answer is not so clear-cut. There is no doubt that the government and Gordon Brown use their position and experience to maintain that they are the right people to save the banks (and possibly the world). Party politics has been snapping back and forth, feeding on the uncertainty that either continued Labour meddling or Tory inaction would spell even greater disaster.
The British are also known to enjoy having something to complain about. The recession allows the satisfaction of such a national trait to its fullest capacity. There is nothing better than a whinge and whine at an economy and a country that has generally gone to the dogs.
Yet I think the answer lies elsewhere in this case.
It sometimes becomes difficult to differentiate between what the mass of the population believes and what the media reports. When something that may affect just a small proportion of the population is broadcast through information channels that are consumed by the population as a whole, it is not in the end just that initial proportion that is affected. Just like the threat of terrorism, the economic crisis or at least the exaggerated psychological awareness of it, has spread unimpeded throughout the media, regularly fuelled by experts and business professionals. This often reaches a level where its validity for all of us is discussed as truth. We should look no further than to what is perennially in our newspapers, on our screens, and coming to us over the internet, as a cause for this unprecedented impact on the nation’s psyche.
Now I’m not saying that there isn’t a crisis – I am no recession-denier. The loss of 2500 jobs at Corus on Monday highlights this only too clearly. But I do genuinely believe that how I feel about the current crisis is not down to how it has directly affected me or the people around me; that is, it is not an assessment based on evidence, rather it is an assessment based on (often mis)perception, wanton speculation and inference. It is an assessment based on the supposed sagacity of multiple media channels. And from what the BBC report suggested, I am not alone in being affected in this manner.
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British society is riven by misplaced fear, and it's the media's fault
The recession, like terrorism, is part of Britain's new "fear society", where mass media works to scare people into believing the situation is much worse for them than it probably is.
While I think the overall point is valid and that the current climate of fear is creating angst and unhappiness, nevertheless it is not surprising that it has taken hold. As the article points out, people are having the rug pulled from underneath them and faced with "Labour meddling or Tory inaction", some see nowhere to turn. It seems politicians have also been gripped by the same fear, that gnaws away at security: it might only be once the worst excesses of the financial crisis are dimming, when the state of flux and uncertainty slows a little, that everyone will be able to make better sense of what is happening and how to cope. It is incredible how the media have managed to crystalise changing perceptions, but it is near-impossible to draw the line on where fact and exaggeration blur. Chicken and egg.
This "media attitude" unfortunately is universal,. But please note that they managed to inflict fear on us, after they succesfully extinguished our self esteem and dignity. Once the media deprived us from our dignity it was easy for them to inflict fear on us. Ujustified fear for anything, our family, our neighbours, our future. Sometimes, even the weather forcast becames a thriller! And most of the times, nothing really happens. So everythig gets forgotten, and we move on, untill the foretell the next disaster….
This manipulation will stop once we regain our dignity as human beings back.
Don't quite agree with the comparison. Terrorism was a totally different domain. And when it comes to fear mongering with that, there is no other media as asinine as that in the US.
I'm not aware of the situation in the UK, but with regard to the economic crisis the US media s still wallowing in ignorance.
Most journalists and networks of course didn't have didn't present the public with any strand of a hint as to what was coming, and are still not taking the whole thing very seriously.
Overall I believe this Crisis is bigger than it seems. Its gonna sink everything cuz the old System was so devoid of the idea of sustainability. Especially that of economic equality within and across borders. Using growth as the ends and not the means, all that stuff. And together with Climate Change, well we're all just screwed. And there isn't even going to be a slight chance for hope if public outlets like the media underestimate the magnitude of the crisis.
Tom's observations are valid and he deserves a pat on his head. As far as I can make out there are three things that sell in this world; sex, speed and fear. If you can come up with a product that incorporates them all you have a winner (congratulations to The News Of The World).
I think it's down to overstimulation. We need to feel. It's fundamental, but when we have such a high standard of living and most of our consumer desires and knife and fork needs are satisfied, we get bored. The only thing that rouses us is ever more extreme stimulation (Two Girls One Cup, Saw, The Boy With No Face and the over-use of grand adjectives and superlatives being a few examples). We have become stagnant and with increasing competition for our diminishing attention spans the purveyors of our stimulus are forced to scrape the barrels of their creativity to get us to buy into their product. Produce. That's the badger; a package for us to swallow in return for our time because as John Wayne says 'Time is money'.
I'm leaving this gluttenous ship for saner and skinnier shores.
Nathan. Are you single?I assume so.____My mate thinks you are hot stuff and your chat is probably ace. The things you say are really interesting and not stupid. You are very insightful and you use the English language really well.____I hope one day, you become Prime Minister or King. ____I think I love you. I need to feel.____PS I like 2 girls and 1 cup too: it makes me feel sex, speed and fear.
Thanks Dirk. You're very kind. Maybe we can get together soon and you can give me head instead of just second rate sarcasm like this.
Tom, my office is also full of dire chat, constant phrases defining the misery of the nation and I know that my office is but one of thousands which has felt the brunt of the recession – ie. redundancies and fear. Some people even live off this fear, i'm not an economic expert either, but short-selling seems to do people in business a world of good (if they're the ones starting the fear in the first place). But i also read, when this first hit, how fear is inevitable in the cycle of recession, boom and (serious) bust. Alternatively, check this out:
http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/12/recession-...
At least we can be in it and come out of it together.
I completely agree Tom, I mean how many times can people repeat how bad things are, how close to collapse everything is and how we are all set to lose our jobs. I've no doubt how important fear is in terms of maintaining control in society though. It ensures people look to the government to guide them through whatever the current crisis is, and this makes people dependant on power structures, a very important thing in keeping an ordered society and obedient population.
Orwell commented on how imperative war is to modern society and there is no better thing for modern government than an ongoing war without end. First it was the war on drugs, now it is far more convenient to have a "war on terrorism", a war that can never end with a perfect anti hero in Bin Laden who is more of a myth than anything else. I'd be very surprised if he is still alive but he is just another piece of the puzzle to keep us all scared and deceive us into thinking this war is actually about something worthwhile.
You want me to suck your dick? Really? Because I will Nathan. I will suck you into the middle of next week, you horny little communist.