Panic after Paris
by Molly Bandelli
On Nov. 13, after I got home from Homecoming dance, my family was huddled in the TV room watching the news. Every single news station discussed the same event and had the same breaking news headline at the bottom the screen: “France under attack, death toll around 120.” I sat and watched, learning about this terrible event. Every hour the death toll rose and I tried to understand why such a severe and violent act of terror would be focused on the beautiful city of Paris.
This tragic event caused the world’s sense of safety to be threatened. The successful planning and execution of the attacks struck society with the realization that this could happen to any country. This thought, as well as the extremely violent acts of terrorism, had filled the world with fear.
With the world traumatized after the attacks in Paris, there was another attack, this time on our own soil. On Dec. 4 in California, 14 individuals were killed at a disability center. Both of the attacks, in Paris and California, were carried out by individuals who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS), which allowed the attacks to officially be declared acts of terrorism. With these gruesome attacks occurring in close proximity, society had officially entered a period of panic — more specifically, moral panic.
Moral panic is a feeling of fear spread among a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society. Unfortunately, society has been entering periods of moral panic more frequently than ever before. From the reaction to the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 to the attack of the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo earlier this year; from the outbreak of the swine flu in 2009 to the outbreak of the ebola virus in 2014, the world has constantly been entering and exiting states of moral panic.
So the question is, how does society cope when we are faced with situations such as terrorist attacks? In this case, drastic times do not call for drastic measures. The key is to not make extreme decisions based solely on fear or a sense of unsafety. These decisions can lead to rash repercussions that could potentially cause harm to society. For example, if we follow Donald Trump’s suggestion that we ban all Muslims from America, we could potentially worsen relations with Muslims which can result in more enemies.
It’s also important to be aware that everything is not going to be solved immediately, but that it will take time. In order to make good, effective decisions, it takes time to think and reflect. Despite the strong feeling of urgency to solve the issue as soon as possible, it is necessary to logically re-evaluate the situation rather than allowing the decision to be driven by fear.
In the end, moral panic is unavoidable. It will always occur when civilization encounters fear or feels that their safety is threatened. However, it’s the maturity with which we face those fears that determines just what kind of people we are.
