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There’s nothing to fear but fear itself I always say. Getting all 1)yellow-bellied during 2)slasher movies or 3)freaking out when you see a spider is for 4)sissies. You gotta be tough. Gotta be strong. Gotta face the world with confidence and self-assurance and never let the man get you down!
Well, okay, sure, there are some things that demand 5)trepidation. We’ve all got a healthy respect for certain dangers in life, most of which was 6)hammered into us in our early years. Don’t play with fire. Don’t put paper clips in the electrical 7)socket. Look both ways before you cross the street. Don’t take candy from strangers. Wash your hands after using the bathroom. All of these little instructions are 8)ingrained in us to protect us from things like getting burnt, 9)electrocuted, run over, kidnapped, or sick. They are healthy fears that help us to proceed with our lives in an orderly—i.e. not dead or injured—10)fashion.
But what about when Fear becomes too much? What happens when we stop fearing Fear and just let it 11)run rampant through the streets, tearing up 12)sanity and leaving in its wake a quivering shell more commonly known as the “13)worrywart”? You all know one: the mom who won’t let her son play because he might get dirty; the guy who can’t leave his company for more than a second without panicking that it’s going to 14)implode without him; the girl with an umbrella, sunglasses, arm protectors, and SPF 50 15)sunscreen on a partially sunny day; and let’s not forget, the worst 16)culprit of all, popular media.
Because of course, popular media is where one of the most recent fear 17)mongering campaigns came from. I’m not saying that the nuclear crisis in Japan is all sunshine and roses—it’s not. But when the run on salt happened in places like Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou, I couldn’t help but shake my head. Okay, sure, I can see one or two people not knowing that you’d need to ingest 3kg of salt at one time to get enough 18)iodine to have any effect—but entire cities? It was a classic case of people forgetting to worry about how much they were worrying.
This also happens on a larger scale with things like 19)medication. I have a friend whose son pops more pills every morning than I do! The first time I saw his little pill pile beside his breakfast plate, I asked his mom how long he’d been sick. Oh no, she replied, he’s not sick. This is just preventative. Yeah, I thought, preventing him from developing an 20)immune system. How can your child become a healthy adult if you don’t allow his body to experience the 21)bacteria and 22)viruses it needs to fight in order to build up its defences?
23)Heck, when I was little, the minute a parent found out that one kid at school had 24)chicken pox, they would bring their own kids from miles around in the hopes that they too would get chicken pox. This would prevent the child from getting it later in life (the virus remains in your nerve tissues for life, but your immune system 25)keeps it at bay) when it’s truly dangerous and deadly.I guess the only solution with an underdeveloped immune system will be more pills in the future. That’s the really scary part.
And it’s not just the obvious things that we’re over-fearing. Movies are too violent, we 26)holler. We must protect our children from the trickery of the internet and the lure of sex-27)infused movies. Social networking is eroding our personal skills and turning us into robots. Technology and entertainment are contributing to the fall of civilization.
I’m sure you recognize the arguments. I myself am guilty of this non-reasoned reasoning on occasion. One of my younger cousins loves video games, particularly war games like Call of Duty and Halo. I used to be convinced that those games were leading kids to believe that violence and fighting were the norm. So one day I asked whether he thought that his games affected the way kids his age saw the world and reacted to everyday situations. He stared at me slightly confused and then said, “Uhhh, you know that they’re not real, right? Like, these are just games. It’s not real life.”
And maybe that’s what people keep forgetting. We spend so much time being worried and living with a false sense of insecurity that we often miss the facts. All that’s required is a little knowledge. After all, this is supposed to be the Information Age, isn’t it? We need to focus on pursuing the truth instead of allowing ourselves to be carried away by popular trends, the media, or 28)old-wives’ tales.
So the next time you start to worry, stop yourself for a minute. Take a few breaths and think, “Do I really know the facts? Is it really so scary? Am I forgetting to fear Fear?” So relax and remember: Let’s not get carried away.
我总是这样说，最可怕的是恐惧本身。看恐怖电影时被吓得四肢发软或是看到一只蜘蛛就鬼哭神嚎都是胆小行为。你的胆子得大一点，性子再悍一点。要自信自如地面对这个世界，永远别让他人扳倒你！
啊，好吧，当然有那么一些东西确实让人惶恐。我们都对生活中某些危险事情抱有敬畏之心——其中大多数早在我们童年时代就镌骨铭心。不要玩火。不要把回形针插入电插座里。过马路时要左右看。不要吃陌生人给的糖果。上完洗手间后要洗手。所有这些琐碎的事要铭记在心，为的是让我们免受火伤、不被电死、不被车撞、不被绑架，也不会生病。这些畏惧是有益的，让我们的生活井井有序，免于死伤。
然而，当恐惧太甚会怎么样？当我们不再畏惧“恐惧”，而让它在大街上肆虐而行，把理智撕碎，徒剩那“杞人忧天”的意识于颤抖的己身时会怎么样？你知道的：那些妈妈不让儿子玩因为怕他会弄脏自己，有种人会寸步不离公司因为害怕没有了自己公司会乱成一团，还有那些晴间多云的日子里带着遮阳伞、墨镜、护臂套子还抹着防晒指数达50的防晒霜的女孩；不要忘记了，罪魁祸首其实是大众传媒。
当然，因为大众传媒是最近众多恐慌传播的来源之一。我不是说日本的核危机是一场华美盛宴—不是的。但是抢盐潮在上海、北京、杭州等地发生时，我不禁摇头叹气。好吧，当然，我能明白有那么一两个人不知道要一次性吞下6斤盐才能补充足够的碘来防辐射—但全城的人都这样？这真是一个“杞人忧天”的典型例子。
这种情况普遍存在，例如在用药方面。我一个朋友的儿子每天早上吃的药丸比我还多！我第一次看到他早餐盘子旁边的小“药堆”时，我问他妈妈他病多久了。哦，不，她回答，他好着呢。这只是预防。我想，可不是嘛，预防他形成健全的免疫系统吧。如果你不让孩子接触细菌病毒来提高免疫力，那孩子怎能健康成长？
唉，我还小的时候，一旦有家长发现学校有孩子出水痘，他们就会把自己的孩子带到附近，希望他们也能出水痘。这样就可以使孩子成年后免于出水痘（这种病毒一辈子都会在你的神经系统，但你的免疫系统会压制其爆发），要是那样，那真的有致命的危险。我想，对于一个不健全的系统，解决的办法就是在将来吞下更多的药片。那才真正恐怖。
我们过度害怕的还不止是那些显而易见的事。电影太暴力，我们尖声惊叫。我们要孩子远离网络诈骗以及情色满目的电影。社交网络正在“侵蚀”我们的交际技能，把我们变成机器人。科技与娱乐加速了文明的殒落。
我肯定你熟悉这些论调。我自己就时不时为这样无理的理论感到羞愧。我一个小表弟爱玩电子游戏，特别是像《使命召唤》和《光环战争》这类战争游戏。我过去就总认为这类游戏会引导孩子相信暴力，相信战斗才是真理。因此某天我问他是否认为他玩的游戏影响像他这个年纪的孩子看待世界的方式以及日常行为。他略带疑惑地看了我一会儿，说：“啊，你知道它们都不是真的，对吧？就是说，这些只是游戏罢了，不是真实生活。”
那可能就是人们一直没有记住的事。我们花了那么多时间处于担忧与不安之中，我们经常会看不到真相。我们需要的不过是一点常识而已。毕竟，这应该是一个资讯年代，不是吗？我们应该在追求真理方面下功夫，而不是随波逐流，在潮流、媒体或是无稽之谈中迷失自我。
所以，下次你开始担忧之时，先停一停。深呼吸，然后想想：“我是否知道事实真相呢？那是不是真的那么可怕？我是不是‘杞人忧天’了？”所以放松，谨记：不要迷失自我。
Well, okay, sure, there are some things that demand 5)trepidation. We’ve all got a healthy respect for certain dangers in life, most of which was 6)hammered into us in our early years. Don’t play with fire. Don’t put paper clips in the electrical 7)socket. Look both ways before you cross the street. Don’t take candy from strangers. Wash your hands after using the bathroom. All of these little instructions are 8)ingrained in us to protect us from things like getting burnt, 9)electrocuted, run over, kidnapped, or sick. They are healthy fears that help us to proceed with our lives in an orderly—i.e. not dead or injured—10)fashion.
But what about when Fear becomes too much? What happens when we stop fearing Fear and just let it 11)run rampant through the streets, tearing up 12)sanity and leaving in its wake a quivering shell more commonly known as the “13)worrywart”? You all know one: the mom who won’t let her son play because he might get dirty; the guy who can’t leave his company for more than a second without panicking that it’s going to 14)implode without him; the girl with an umbrella, sunglasses, arm protectors, and SPF 50 15)sunscreen on a partially sunny day; and let’s not forget, the worst 16)culprit of all, popular media.
Because of course, popular media is where one of the most recent fear 17)mongering campaigns came from. I’m not saying that the nuclear crisis in Japan is all sunshine and roses—it’s not. But when the run on salt happened in places like Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou, I couldn’t help but shake my head. Okay, sure, I can see one or two people not knowing that you’d need to ingest 3kg of salt at one time to get enough 18)iodine to have any effect—but entire cities? It was a classic case of people forgetting to worry about how much they were worrying.
This also happens on a larger scale with things like 19)medication. I have a friend whose son pops more pills every morning than I do! The first time I saw his little pill pile beside his breakfast plate, I asked his mom how long he’d been sick. Oh no, she replied, he’s not sick. This is just preventative. Yeah, I thought, preventing him from developing an 20)immune system. How can your child become a healthy adult if you don’t allow his body to experience the 21)bacteria and 22)viruses it needs to fight in order to build up its defences?
23)Heck, when I was little, the minute a parent found out that one kid at school had 24)chicken pox, they would bring their own kids from miles around in the hopes that they too would get chicken pox. This would prevent the child from getting it later in life (the virus remains in your nerve tissues for life, but your immune system 25)keeps it at bay) when it’s truly dangerous and deadly.I guess the only solution with an underdeveloped immune system will be more pills in the future. That’s the really scary part.
And it’s not just the obvious things that we’re over-fearing. Movies are too violent, we 26)holler. We must protect our children from the trickery of the internet and the lure of sex-27)infused movies. Social networking is eroding our personal skills and turning us into robots. Technology and entertainment are contributing to the fall of civilization.
I’m sure you recognize the arguments. I myself am guilty of this non-reasoned reasoning on occasion. One of my younger cousins loves video games, particularly war games like Call of Duty and Halo. I used to be convinced that those games were leading kids to believe that violence and fighting were the norm. So one day I asked whether he thought that his games affected the way kids his age saw the world and reacted to everyday situations. He stared at me slightly confused and then said, “Uhhh, you know that they’re not real, right? Like, these are just games. It’s not real life.”
And maybe that’s what people keep forgetting. We spend so much time being worried and living with a false sense of insecurity that we often miss the facts. All that’s required is a little knowledge. After all, this is supposed to be the Information Age, isn’t it? We need to focus on pursuing the truth instead of allowing ourselves to be carried away by popular trends, the media, or 28)old-wives’ tales.
So the next time you start to worry, stop yourself for a minute. Take a few breaths and think, “Do I really know the facts? Is it really so scary? Am I forgetting to fear Fear?” So relax and remember: Let’s not get carried away.
我总是这样说，最可怕的是恐惧本身。看恐怖电影时被吓得四肢发软或是看到一只蜘蛛就鬼哭神嚎都是胆小行为。你的胆子得大一点，性子再悍一点。要自信自如地面对这个世界，永远别让他人扳倒你！
啊，好吧，当然有那么一些东西确实让人惶恐。我们都对生活中某些危险事情抱有敬畏之心——其中大多数早在我们童年时代就镌骨铭心。不要玩火。不要把回形针插入电插座里。过马路时要左右看。不要吃陌生人给的糖果。上完洗手间后要洗手。所有这些琐碎的事要铭记在心，为的是让我们免受火伤、不被电死、不被车撞、不被绑架，也不会生病。这些畏惧是有益的，让我们的生活井井有序，免于死伤。
然而，当恐惧太甚会怎么样？当我们不再畏惧“恐惧”，而让它在大街上肆虐而行，把理智撕碎，徒剩那“杞人忧天”的意识于颤抖的己身时会怎么样？你知道的：那些妈妈不让儿子玩因为怕他会弄脏自己，有种人会寸步不离公司因为害怕没有了自己公司会乱成一团，还有那些晴间多云的日子里带着遮阳伞、墨镜、护臂套子还抹着防晒指数达50的防晒霜的女孩；不要忘记了，罪魁祸首其实是大众传媒。
当然，因为大众传媒是最近众多恐慌传播的来源之一。我不是说日本的核危机是一场华美盛宴—不是的。但是抢盐潮在上海、北京、杭州等地发生时，我不禁摇头叹气。好吧，当然，我能明白有那么一两个人不知道要一次性吞下6斤盐才能补充足够的碘来防辐射—但全城的人都这样？这真是一个“杞人忧天”的典型例子。
这种情况普遍存在，例如在用药方面。我一个朋友的儿子每天早上吃的药丸比我还多！我第一次看到他早餐盘子旁边的小“药堆”时，我问他妈妈他病多久了。哦，不，她回答，他好着呢。这只是预防。我想，可不是嘛，预防他形成健全的免疫系统吧。如果你不让孩子接触细菌病毒来提高免疫力，那孩子怎能健康成长？
唉，我还小的时候，一旦有家长发现学校有孩子出水痘，他们就会把自己的孩子带到附近，希望他们也能出水痘。这样就可以使孩子成年后免于出水痘（这种病毒一辈子都会在你的神经系统，但你的免疫系统会压制其爆发），要是那样，那真的有致命的危险。我想，对于一个不健全的系统，解决的办法就是在将来吞下更多的药片。那才真正恐怖。
我们过度害怕的还不止是那些显而易见的事。电影太暴力，我们尖声惊叫。我们要孩子远离网络诈骗以及情色满目的电影。社交网络正在“侵蚀”我们的交际技能，把我们变成机器人。科技与娱乐加速了文明的殒落。
我肯定你熟悉这些论调。我自己就时不时为这样无理的理论感到羞愧。我一个小表弟爱玩电子游戏，特别是像《使命召唤》和《光环战争》这类战争游戏。我过去就总认为这类游戏会引导孩子相信暴力，相信战斗才是真理。因此某天我问他是否认为他玩的游戏影响像他这个年纪的孩子看待世界的方式以及日常行为。他略带疑惑地看了我一会儿，说：“啊，你知道它们都不是真的，对吧？就是说，这些只是游戏罢了，不是真实生活。”
那可能就是人们一直没有记住的事。我们花了那么多时间处于担忧与不安之中，我们经常会看不到真相。我们需要的不过是一点常识而已。毕竟，这应该是一个资讯年代，不是吗？我们应该在追求真理方面下功夫，而不是随波逐流，在潮流、媒体或是无稽之谈中迷失自我。
所以，下次你开始担忧之时，先停一停。深呼吸，然后想想：“我是否知道事实真相呢？那是不是真的那么可怕？我是不是‘杞人忧天’了？”所以放松，谨记：不要迷失自我。