Fear is contagious. With the September 11th, terrorist attacks and the round-the-clock coverage of the war in Iraq, Americans, in their attempt to cope with troubling events, are overexposing themselves to threatening information. Unregulated consumption of threatening imagery weakens our individual resolve and undermines our collective defenses, playing into the hands of those who wish to harm us.

Fear is a weapon. The principle weapon of terrorists is not bombs, guns, or chemicals, it is fear itself. The main target of terrorists is not airports, ports or buildings: It is our minds. The minds of Westerns are perceived as a “soft” target susceptible to fear for several reasons. The first is our common value system based on the premise that the preservation of life is the highest virtue. The systematic cultivation of a “culture of death” has proven very effective against Westerners belonging to the “culture of life”. Additionally, people who live in the relative safety of modern life are more susceptible to the influence of extreme violence. Lastly, the weapon of fear, just like any other weapon, must have an effective delivery system. Democratic societies provide the primary vehicle in the form of mass media.

Fear is prolific. In contrast to traditional security thinking, which is primarily focused on reinforcing the physical characteristics of possible targets, progressive terrorism counter measures should include reinforcing “psychological targets” of terror. Mental resilience, like physical fitness, is a perishable skill that requires regular exercise to maintain. Knowing how to cope with the fear of fear is an essential part of learning how to live with terrorism realities. Since 9/11 the words terrorism, hijacking, homicide bombers, war, and weapons of mass destruction have become household themes. Americans ares swamped on a daily basis with an array of variable and often contradictory opinions, advice, and predictions in the name of free speech. Alarmism has become the leading tone and individuals reading, listening or watching this influx are oftentimes overwhelmed. Many have given up on “making sense of it all” and attempt to detach themselves by practicing cognitive avoidance known as “escapism”.

Fear has adaptive value. An effective way to cope with terrorism is by relating to it as an infectious social disease whose spread can be controlled through a public vaccination process applied individually. To succeed, this should be done on several platforms simultaneously; by creating an environment resistant to the virus using steady face diplomacy and progressive legislation, by eradicating the contamination source with coordinated global counter terrorism efforts, by decontaminating the infected body with improved homeland security and intelligence, and by vaccinating the population through a process of education promoting a terrorism resistant mind set. To avoid the issue, a growing number of Americans chose to subscribe to the notion that the September 11 attacks were an isolated incident, and that terror on American soil is no longer probable. This has resulted in declining support for the war on terror and most importantly a re-prioritization of funding, both in the public and private sectors, from security to other matters. This is the type of complacency driven vulnerability that the terrorist master minds could have been waiting for.

To do so we must first better understand the phenomenon of fear. Fear principally steams from the unknown. It is an anticipatory emotion based on individual imagination of future adverse outcomes and the collective perception of current circumstances (“reality”). In other words, the emotion of fear is, by definition, a mind game – imagination that breeds on imagination. There are two basic types of fear: Acute Fear and Ambient Fear. We are all familiar with Acute Fear; the psycho-physiological tension driven by the adrenaline rush that makes us short of breath and attentionally fixated when we are faced with a sudden unexpected change in perceived safety. There is also Ambient Fear, the collective diffusion of fear. A cognitive contamination method often used by brutal individuals like Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Stalin, sMussolini and Hitler to control the masses.

The Fear Acronym The word fear provides an acronym: Failure to Engage Active Response. Taking action individually and socially is the best way to dissipate fear and its psycho-physiological affects. This can be done on three fundamental levels: prevention, intervention and regulation.

Preventive actions could include: regulating media consumption, improving access to factual information, increasing personal vigilance, establishing a community early warning program for timely threat perception validation, developing crisis communication program, preparing and practicing a plan of action for variable threat scenarios, supporting new security legislations, supporting the efforts of public safety organizations, investing in safety education. One can also take interceptive actions such as: applying personal emergency plan, activating neighborhood evacuation and protection procedures, engaging coworkers’ cooperation, assisting public safety professionals. Lastly, regulative actions can be engage such as: investing in children education programs, using public sheltering centers, post disaster recovery instruments, and school and workplace based clinical intervention treatment.

If not regulated, fear becomes panic, which can paralyze mind, body and society. Societal effects could include: Travel Phobia resulting in severe impairment of the tourism and transportation industries with direct impact on free trade and the global economy, and Xenophobia resulting in the proliferation of profiling-based threat identification systems with unavoidable impact on privacy.

It is important to remember that there are two basic ways to cope with the perception of risks with high probability of occurrence (fear of violent attacks) – knowledge and faith. One must either equip self with information about what to do when and if faced with threats, or have the spiritual fortitude to believe that one will overcome those unforeseeable circumstances.

Success in the fight against terrorism depends upon our personal mentsls resilience as much as on our united resolve.

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