Read on Twitter
1933: There is nothing to fear but fear itself.
2020: Be afraid. It’s your duty to your country, and it’s what makes you a good person.
2020: Be afraid. It’s your duty to your country, and it’s what makes you a good person.
The responses to this tweet make it look like an interesting Rorschach test.
There are many ways to look at fear and they aren't all about COVID, and for the record I wear a mask in indoor public spaces and among crowds.
There are many ways to look at fear and they aren't all about COVID, and for the record I wear a mask in indoor public spaces and among crowds.
The proportions of people polled who say they are afraid to express their views have gone through the roof. Many corners of academia have been marked by intimidation and fear of so much as liking the wrong tweet. The VIX is called the "fear index" in finance and has been elevated
Objective measures of mental disorders are through the roof.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7405486/
"Compared to U.S. adults in 2019, U.S. adults in April and May 2020 were more than three times as likely to screen positive for depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, or one or both, with more than one out of three screening positive for one or both."
"Compared to U.S. adults in 2019, U.S. adults in April and May 2020 were more than three times as likely to screen positive for depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, or one or both, with more than one out of three screening positive for one or both."
While it's true that no one has proclaimed "be afraid. be very afraid," it is generally characteristic of the mood of 2020 that we have entered an era of enormous fear. And I haven't seen any public messaging that sounds anything like "There is nothing to fear but fear itself."
In general, public messaging on all of those fronts has been to take advantage of the fear as a useful means of shaping behavior.
So no, no one explicitly admonished anyone to be fearful. But the public messaging has taken on a symbiotic relationship with the fear.
So no, no one explicitly admonished anyone to be fearful. But the public messaging has taken on a symbiotic relationship with the fear.
And look at anything else I've written where I've explicitly described any of my views. I've never been against prudence, never favored not caring about anything, never taken a position on masks.
I find it very interesting that if I say something commenting on the transition to a more fearful state, the instantaneous reaction of many is to immediately become defensive about how they are not promoting fear, and to imply I'm being unethical by mentioning it.
