Originally Posted by
MyNameIsTerry
How about the example of Ebola? The nation was scared by an apocalyptic media a few years back. It was as if this new big nasty had come to earth. But if you actually looked into it you would see there had been something like 25 previous outbreaks.
Why weren't we scared? Well, perhaps because so few of us even knew?
Then there is reclassification. Take the new COPD my mum has. But one of it's two sub categories her mum had over 50 years before due to working in dusty factories as a young woman.
Did people only just start dying of lung cancers despite smoking being an ancient practice? Was asbestos safe before a scientist gave a disease a name? Did the recent PTSD not exist in a world built on rape & pillage or did it have a different name (e.g. shell shock)?
It's like the question of mental health: new or just more known? Were people hardened and we're weaker? Has it increased due to the change in pace of the modern world? Maybe all our comforts leave us more time to fill with irrational worry?