Originally Posted by nancy59
I remember a time when you left your keys in the car, doors unlocked. It is such a shame that we have to be so afraid now.
I don't think that the vast majority of people need live in fear. I certainly don't.
I was looking up Gavin de Becker's book, _The Gift of Fear_. for a friend and was reminded of something he goes into near the end of the book.
He points out that what "sells" the news is drama and fear. The more drama and fear a given news source provides, the more attention they get and the more they can charge for their advertising. Can you see where this is going?
Right now, we, as a culture, have "bought" ourselves a news media that delivers lots of short jolts of adrenaline but very little thoughtful consideration of the news issues of the day.
This is not a new trend, it has been going on just about as long as the printing press made mass distribution of literature possible. Read James I & VI's book, _Malleus Malificarum_, for a great example. Yes, that is the same King James as in the famous version of the Christian Bible.
The big difference is that while it took many people and many resources to produce copies of the _Malleus Malificarum_ (roughly translated as "Witch's Hammer"), it takes as little as one human being and one computer to spread the news today.
I only recently made my husband stop leaving the keys in the car at home. The problem was that he'd hit the electric door lock as he got out of the car without realising it (new car) and then be locked out of the car with no keys!
Nothing to do with fear of crime at all, unless you consider husbandly silliness to be a criminal offence.