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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

Fear not

There are a lot of things you could be scared about this coming Halloween.

Ebola is spreading. ISIS continues to promise destruction to the West and execute people. Hugh Jackman has cancer.

But the scariest thing is unnecessary fear.

Halloween is scary for a reason. When we can’t explain things, we fear them. It’s a natural ?response.

The unknown could be dangerous, so we become afraid for protection.

And sometimes feeling fear can be fun.

Fear is an intoxicant.

It gets your adrenaline going.

It makes you feel alert and alive.

We watch scary movies for the rush. Fear gets you moving.

This would be good if we were out in the wild. But we’re not in a state of nature. We live in a prosperous society with order and rules and lots of good people.

When fear starts to permeate our reality and not our movies and books this Halloween season, we can start to lose hope.

Despite our fears, violent crime has dropped in the last 20 years. Though there is still terrible conflict in the world, wars are getting smaller and less deadly.

We are living in a good time period, but Americans’ biggest fear is still walking alone at night. We’re scared of shadows and possibilities, and that is no way to live.

Part of this is definitely the media’s fault. Sensational stories get views, so tragedies often oversaturate the news.

The media works with what it has to to keep profits up and journalism alive.

We should learn to take what large news outlets say with a grain of salt.

It is bad and unsafe to worry and stress about molehills that have been blown into mountains.

And I’m not saying you shouldn’t be cautious.

It would be foolish to look at everything through rose-colored glasses. There is still bad in the world, and it is easy to get exploited when you don’t take things ?seriously.

But it’s just as easy to be exploited when you’re afraid. You make yourself vulnerable to alarmist information rather than the truth. When you’re afraid, you act with rash ?emotion.

You can be incited to buy things you don’t need or give up your rights or become angry at others for no reason.

There is no reason to let what is bad in the world rule your life or damage the way you interact with people and how you handle yourself.

Taking no precautions is bad, but taking rash steps can be just as harmful. It can even worsen the situation.

Before you’re consumed with fear, take the time to look at the issue and determine if there is real danger.

It’s often less than it’s made out to be.

Ebola has been around for a while, and if we’re smart about it we’ll ?survive.

ISIS is a fringe group, and it represents a very small population of the Middle East.

Hugh Jackman has skin cancer — he’ll be OK.

Let fear alert you, but don’t let it rule you.

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