Fear Of The Unknown Research Paper

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Fear of the Unknown What is going to happen tomorrow? The citizens of America will catch a deadly virus. Though this statement is blunt, this is a reoccurring thought in many people’s minds. According to a Washington Post poll, 43% of Americans are terrified that they or their family members will catch the Ebola virus, and 31% of the United States is scared of a possible Ebola epidemic in the United States. The subject of Ebola is covered on all forms of media ranging from the news on T.V to discussions on Twitter. Shockingly, rumors and stories about this deadly virus are spreading faster than the sickness itself. Similarly in The Demon in the Freezer, Richard Preston writes about true events where people have contracted Anthrax and smallpox, and how groups used fear of the illnesses as their ultimate weapon. Both during the past and the modern world today, fear is the true disease. …show more content…

If someone has complete manipulation of other people’s fear, then they can use it to their advantage. One month and two days before two planes crashed into the twin towers, John Ezzell found an envelope. Inside of it was a note reading “09-11-01 YOU CAN NOT STOP US. WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX. YOU DIE NOW. ARE YOU AFRAID? DEATH TO AMERICA. DEATH TO ISRAEL. ALLAH IS GREAT (Preston 17). Ezzell took a metal spatula and scraped the inside of the envelope revealing a “pale, uniform, light tan color[ed]” powder (18). From that moment on, the United States was in serious trouble. The note itself implemented terror by threatening America with Anthrax and asked a rhetorical question knowing the answer was yes. Later on, variola or smallpox was found out to be loose in America. It was not the fact that smallpox was a disease that could be spread easily that made people fearful. The piece of information that made people worry was “the fact [that] nobody knows where all of it is or what, exactly, people intend to do with

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