Fear and panic in America

Our society has grown numb to the shock of the extraordinary, so much so that news which should shake the very core of our existence — like “aliens are among us” or “we’re on the edge of nuclear war” — barely registers. We’re trapped in a cycle of fear and panic, fed by a constant stream of alarming news, to the point where we’ve developed a kind of emotional callus. This isn’t just desensitization; it’s an exhaustion from continuous trauma, where even the most groundbreaking or horrifying events fail to provoke a response beyond a weary acknowledgment. The world could be ending, aliens could be knocking, and yet, here we are, scrolling past it all with a tired indifference, our capacity for surprise or even genuine concern worn thin by the relentless pace of modern life’s relentless crises.