10/2002: Londoners woke up to a surprising site. Posters reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984 plastered along London bus routes were not a hoax, but part of an official anti-crime campaign mounted by the Metropolitan Police and London’s mass transit provider. The poster’s message to the public is that they are under constant surveillance – and so they should feel “secure.” Wink wink. Would you feel secure? Or frightened?
Category Archives: Terrorist
Eliminate fear by building confidence
People are consumed with fear these days. Yesterday, I spoke with a woman who is convinced the world is coming to an end and is preparing to die. She was going to Paris over the holidays, and is now canceling because she’s scared. She’s become a victim.
Neuro-economist Gregory Berns wrote, “While fear is a deep-seated and adaptive evolutionary drive for self-preservation, it makes it impossible to concentrate on anything but saving our skin. Ultimately, no good can come from this fear, because fear prompts retreat. Fear diverts progress. Just when we need new ideas most, everyone is seized up in fear, trying to prevent losing what we have left.”
Berns conducted an experiment and found that people would rather hurry up a bad experience rather than wait for it—they want to go ahead and experience something negative before it happens so that when the real shock happens, it’s not so bad.
WOAH. SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH THIS.
Mark Twain said, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Don’t you love that? He’s not a victim! But he does take his energy and uses it for creativity and innovation.
Just saying . . .