Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

"Oddballs" talked about DDT, women's rights, ozone layer, Poverty, gambling, single parenthood- you name the subject.

Letters to editors gave others' voices. But no way to communicate back. Magazines gave voices too, but weekly or monthly.

Aside from civil rights and anti Vietnam war organizing there was not much organizing going on.

I recall a spray painted "go to dc Jan 20" on a pinball joint in my university city hometown.

Printed flyers on poles organized people for war protests.

The first real "always talked about " thing was Watergate hearings and then of course the Iran hostages and Nightline each night. Constant update on the subject.

Talk radio did not exist back then. Am radio djs talked but. Never political

I agree with your overall point that a different apocalyptic view is becoming the mainstream in religious circles: that the end-times is imminent. I disagree that the religious systems are the cause; I believe that these viewpoints are becoming more popular as anxiety increases among these groups. Rural (Evangelical) Americans are genuinely experiencing decreased economic opportunity; young Muslims in Europe also experience an inability to be accepted in society and are locked out of the job market far worse than Christian youth.

I don't disagree with your analysis but I thought I should add some more information because I think it's interesting.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism#Reformation_and_...

Does anyone have any information whether this viewpoint was significant in the early U.S. foreign aid support of Israel (1930-1970)? I am uneducated in this segment of U.S. history.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism

I do think there is actual corruption on all sides, simply because of the fact that money and campaign donations are such huge factors in the political process. I think every American should be horrified by this and should be doing everything they can to take money out of what is effectively our hiring process for high-level government officials.

However, I fear that this is not what [some survey] picked up on. I fear that [some survey] picked up on fans of politician X believing X's accusations of corruption on the part of politician Y were true, while simultaneously not believing allegations of corruption about their own candidate. And vice versa. I fear that all [some survey] picked up on is the sheer toxicity of the process nowadays, and not people who are concerned about the integrity of the political process itself.

In reality, we have met the enemy, and them is us. The US's major problems are internal, not external. The US's economic problems are mostly because we haven't figured out what to do about automation. What are average people with an average high school education going to do? That's the big problem.

As for threats, terrorism is down in the noise of routine shootings. ISIS can hurt us a little now and then, but no way could they invade the US and take over. Militant Islam will continue to be a headache worldwide, but most of the strongly Islamic states are failed states. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt - all were once strong states able to project power, and now they can't.

Climate change is more of a threat outside the US than to the US directly. The US isn't going to get unlivable temperatures like parts of the Middle East. Rising temperatures mean agriculture moves north, and the US has lots of underutilized north. Most of the US is above the levels affected by sea level rise. (Except Florida. Florida has a big problem. Miami already has to pump out their city regularly.)

Nuclear weapons proliferation is a worry, yet one that doesn't show up much politically. North Korea has nuclear weapons, at least medium-range ballistic missiles, and a dictator with the power to use them. It's getting too easy to make nuclear weapons. After all, the technology is 70 years old now.

China is the next superpower, and nobody knows what they'll do. Probably nothing really foolish. Their leadership is not stupid.

Are we really living in an age of fear, or is that a feeling people in the media get from listening to their own output too much?