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I don't want to sound like the cynic that this world is turning me into, but why is everyone always so scared of new threats that aren't even remotely as bad as the old ones we've become accostomed to? Take West Nile Virus, for example: unknown until a few years ago, the fight against this not-very-deadly disease has cost over $20 billion in the US alone. The flu, on the other hand, kills hundreds of thousands of people every year in the world, but until very recently did not engender anything like the mass hysteria of a new disease. It's the same with airline security: everyone, deep down, knows that the chances of another terrorist attack in the United States are incredibly high, and, that with Al-Qaeda's love of airplanes, there is a higher probablility of airplanes being targeted than, say, bowling alleys. There. I've said it. If you fly, there is a small chance that your plane will blow up. Does this make me happy? Of course not. But what does it say about our society that the all-encompassing fear of a manner of death that will, even under the most horrible of circumstances, only affect a tiny proportion of people -- that is, death through any sort of airplane disaster, terrorist or otherwise -- now causes constant news bulletins on whether solid lipstick is safe to take on planes, while liquid lipstick isn't? Doesn't this seem totally crazy to anyone else? Aren't our priorities completely out of whack? Isn't a life slightly threatened by terrorism but free from constant fear for one's personal safety worth more than a world only a tiny bit safer and far more fearful? Please, someone explain to me how we got to a point where parents have to try baby formula before taking their kid to see grandma in Des Moines.
