Panic Buttons

The risk of withdrawal.

In response to Seb's post (dated 23/02/07) I would like to discuss his idea of localisation and the ability to avoid the mainstream media whilst upholding a reliable consciousness of risk.

It is true to say that many people gather their understanding of the world from the media, rather than direct experiences. We are then susceptible to the way this information is presented which in turn, may distort our perceptions of any possible risk entailed. These communications could be subject to manipulation; exaggerated or attenuated, but I would argue our media is not the creator of panic, but rather, it reflects the issues of society we have chosen to fear for ourselves.

So why in the advent of new technologies; accuracy of calculation and accountable scale, are we still unsettled in widespread apprehension and anxiety? For starters, such technologies have themselves shifted the character of fear. What was once self and local is now public and global. We hear of far away disasters and dangers in countries we will never visit, but still we are able to relate and sympathise with those affected. Our growing exposure to these third-hand experiences alert us to new hazards and their associated risks. Such knowledge then fuels the potential for panic and as Ulrich Beck suggests, “the sources of danger are no longer ignorance but knowledge”.[1]

Does this then devalue the esteem in which we hold knowledge? Perhaps Seb is merely being selective in his limitation of external influences. It could be argued that by ignoring factors which we are not directly affected by, we may be entitled to a more peaceful and placid existence.
Although I would agree with Beck, that new knowledge brings new consideration that can not be reversed or forgotten, I would insist that this learning is central to dealing with our uncertainties and fears effectively.

The German sociologist Niklas Luhman strongly asserts the assumption that the further we develop our technologies, the greater our ability is to cause harm.[2] (Indeed Seb's forecasted headlines also include World Wars and Nuclear Armament). Luhman also believes our future path is so deeply riddled in exponential capitalist developments that no one can claim knowledge of the future or have the capacity to change it, and thus we can only deploy learned insight from historical trial and error.[3]

From such learning we are able to advance the understanding of our subjectivity and re-evaluate the risks and necessary precautions. Avoiding all media and going “cold turkey” would only restrict our social development and further fragment communities into isolation. We have already lost so much social structure in the decline of traditional forms of solidarity, such as unions and neighbourhoods, we risk too much hiding away in our own “cocoons”.
I would suggest that such withdrawal, would only realise a deeper sense of insecurity, vulnerability and a further depreciation of rational behaviour.


[1] Beck, U. Risk Society.p183
[2] Furedi, F. Culture of Fear.p55
[3] Furedi, F. Culture of Fear.p57

See also Good Radio :)