The need for fear in America
ForumHorror!
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1cloudshipsinger
Crazy theory: humans have an evolutionary need to feel fear. They crave it, and will seek it out for the pure adrenaline, even if they have the easiest, coziest modern industrial lifestyle.
But maybe this need goes unfulfilled in some people. They don't get it from their fiction, so they seek it out in their reality (which is basically fiction). Hence you get FOX News, and a whole bunch of political movements based on wildly exagerrated, pointless fears (no, violent crimes have dropped dramatically in recent years...no, there won't be death panels deciding to execute your grandmother...) One awesome book on this is "The Culture of Fear" by Barry Glassner.
Solution: More people read horror fiction. Or maybe that's the wrong solution, with it creating a greater demand for fear instead of satisfying a demand. I dunno, I'm just kinda spitballing. What do y'all think?
But maybe this need goes unfulfilled in some people. They don't get it from their fiction, so they seek it out in their reality (which is basically fiction). Hence you get FOX News, and a whole bunch of political movements based on wildly exagerrated, pointless fears (no, violent crimes have dropped dramatically in recent years...no, there won't be death panels deciding to execute your grandmother...) One awesome book on this is "The Culture of Fear" by Barry Glassner.
Solution: More people read horror fiction. Or maybe that's the wrong solution, with it creating a greater demand for fear instead of satisfying a demand. I dunno, I'm just kinda spitballing. What do y'all think?
