Music Friday: This is fear country. I've gotta tell on you.

Last night Professor Barry Glassner, president of Lewis & Clark College here in Portland, gave a talk about "The Culture of Fear" in America. That's also the title of a book he wrote, about how people misplace their fear and worry about things that don't need to be feared. I remember what my life was like as a child versus what my life was like as a parent and yes, fear has multiplied. And it's only gotten worse since then. Everybody's afraid of everything.

Glassner, formerly the executive vice provost at the University of Southern California, has earned a reputation as a rational critic of dire news -- whether it arises in media, political or popular circles. He says three out of four Americans report that they're more afraid now than they were 20 years ago, and he's kept track of how those fears have ebbed and flowed...

Glassner offered this:

 "It's really in schools, from kindergarten through graduate schools, where people have the best opportunity to understand how to sort out realistic claims from exaggerated ones and learn how to think critically."

It reminds me of T-Bone Burnett's song of paranoia, "Fear Country".

Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite.

Comments

[childrens ugg boots]

good articles