Why the Terrorism Scare Is a Moral Panic (The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things by Barry Glassner ) (Cover Story‪)‬

THERE IS LEGITIMATE CONCERN in the United States about foreign terrorists attacking Americans on U.S. soil. However, the concern has been hyped beyond reason. One only need compare the terrorist threat with the Cold War danger posed by intercontinental missiles carrying hundreds of nuclear bombs, deliverable in minutes by the former Soviet Union. More importantly, the terrorism scare has resulted in the worst abuses of power since Richard Nixon's years in the White House. In his 1999 best-selling book, The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, sociologist Barry Glassner shows how people in the United States are constantly bombarded with appeals to fear. One threat or another grabs attention on the evening news. There are child kidnappers and molesters, drug dealers who peddle to school children, teenage gang killers, teenage mass murderers in schools, and crack addicts. Moreover, an epidemic of single mothers and gay couples is said to threaten the fabric of society. Glassner suggests that politicians make speeches and pass dramatic laws, but the new laws only appear to accomplish something. As a result, certain groups live in constant fear of danger, and this is creating some odd twists. For example, elderly people living in rural areas (perhaps because they tend to spend more time alone watching crime reports on television news) are more fearful of violent criminals and potential terrorists than are people who live in big cities.