The Myth of Panic
This New York Times op ed argues that panic is largely a myth. People feel stressed but they behave rationally, and it only gets called “panic” because of the stress.
If our leaders are really planning for panic, in the technical sense, then they are at best wasting resources on a future that is unlikely to happen. At worst, they may be doing our enemies’ work for them – while people are amazing under pressure, it cannot help to have predictions of panic drummed into them by supposed experts.
It can set up long-term foreboding, causing people to question whether they have the mettle to handle terrorists’ challenges. Studies have found that when interpreting ambiguous situations, people look to one another for cues. Panicky warnings can color the cues that people draw from one another when interpreting ambiguous situations, like seeing a South Asian-looking man with a backpack get on a bus.
Nor can it help if policy makers talk about possible draconian measures (like martial law and rigidly policed quarantines) to control the public and deny its right to manage its own affairs. The very planning for such measures can alienate citizens and the authorities from each other.
Whatever its source, the myth of panic is a threat to our welfare. Given the difficulty of using the term precisely and the rarity of actual panic situations, the cleanest solution is for the politicians and the press to avoid the term altogether. It’s time to end chatter about “panic” and focus on ways to support public resilience in an emergency.
Subscribe to comments on this entry
RvnPhnx • August 9, 2005 7:55 AM
I read this last night and I have to say that I agree with many of the points presented. I also think that presenting some sources, so that the article couldn’t be as easily attacked, would have been smart.
I am a trained first responder (though not in active practice at the moment) and I know that “true panic” (when things really do become too chaotic to comprehend and deal with, causing mental or emotional overload) is the one thing that one must not let happen in an emergency situation. There, however, is another element–one must not frivolously claim to be in a state of emergency when one truly is not (practice drills are ok, fear mongering isn’t).
By getting people to think about panicing constantly the administration is serving polical ends to the detriment of society. Why? Because when people act as if a panic situation is at hand they don’t ask questions like they should or think things through–they just do things.
I personally think that the current administrations in many countries (most obviously in the USA, of course–but Egypt could qualify also, for instance) are using the concept of “extended painic” much in the way that George Orwell thought would happen after a second world war–they are using it to press an agenda that does not benefit the vast majority of the populace.