WORLD SOCIAL SUMMIT 2008
'WSS: Furedi, seven rules to understand fear'

"Today there is a new fear compared to the past" stated Frank Furedi, Hungarian sociologist at Kent University in the United Kingdom, during the World Social Summit held in Rome until September 26^th. "We are always talking about fears, using rituals. At the beginning of my lectures, I must explain where emergency exits are located. At the airport, they ask you if somebody went through your luggage. These are expected things, but they increase fear". Furedi explains the differences of today's fear compared to the past: "It was virtue in the Middle ages, addressed to god. In 1930 it consisted in unemployment, while in the 1950 it consisted in the nuclear war".

With regards to the present, the sociologist identifies seven rules to understand "our" fears. "First of all, it is a problem detached from a specific object". For example, he talks about police: "In England, it has the task to fight the fear of criminality. Second of all, fear moves freely. Just look at the newspapers: bird flue, obesity, genetically modified foods. Third, fear became an ideology, a prospect. Politics uses it as a cultural resource. Nowadays, the differences between parties consist of the different fears on which they find their point of strength. Then there is intangibility, the idea of an unforeseeable threat".

For the last rules, Furedi talks about human psychology: "We are defined by our fears, thus becoming more vulnerable, not as individuals but as society. Sixth, fears assume a private character. We do not talk with our neighbors, we live secluded. Last point, we fear ourselves. We are reading about man kind that pollutes and destroys. The human impact has taken up a negative meaning lately. We stay at home, we are not able to share common values, if not by using fear".