The culture of fear: 24/7

No small contributor to this crisis: the culture of fear. It's not sex that sells. It's fear. Try it: watch tv for ten minutes and count the number of references to fear:—not just the menu du jour of fear of financial ruin, but fear of everything: crime, embarrassment, terrorists, being fat, being left out, fear of being uncool, of not getting laid, of getting old and falling in the bathtub, of getting old and not leaving a dime to your heirs, of just plain getting old. . . . Fear, fear, fear. With cable tv and the net it's Fear 24/7.

No wonder people get rattled before anything actually happens. No wonder the market drops when people just get a glimpse of that deer-in-the-headlights look in Henry Paulson's eyes. . . .