Doomed?

Fear is used as a means of affecting people's opinions and actions. Politicians, religious leaders and artists try to alter our behaviour by inducing panic. For example, religious leaders may threaten punishment if people do not change their ways. Politicians have scared us into supporting wars by citing the potential for disaster that nuclear armourment posesses. Arguably, both of these examples have resulted in marked change. Soldiers have signed up for military service and many people have been compelled to lead religious lives.

The Doomsday Clock, a campaign designed by Pentagram in collaboration with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, may have aimed to change people's behaviour through panic. But does an image of a ticking clock together with emotive imagery really achieve anything? I think it fails to provide explicit solutions to the problems it identifies.

Fear is malleable. Political activists, religious leaders and artists have the ability to design 'panic buttons' which they press in order to encourage us to modify our behavior. This is a very powerful tool which, when used positively, could potentially achieve very noble objectives. Perhaps showing graphic films depicting pedestrians being struck by cars will encourage drivers to reduce their speed. However, there is also potential for fear to be used as a means to achieve more questionable objectives. We, as human beings, can lose the ability to remain objective under the influence of fear. This leaves us open for exploitation, questioning the ethics of 'panic buttons'.