Why Are Americans Always Worried about Something New?

I recently received this e-mail:

Watch out for the flu

Everyone, please be careful. This is getting more serious than we expected...

First Celebrity Dies of Swine Flu

It was a cheap shot at our constant need (as Americans--I can only speak as an American--I've never lived in another country and so I don't know how they handle things) to be paranoid about something. Seriously, have you noticed how there is always something new on the news to be concerned about?

While walking around NYC, I have seen a few people walking around with face masks, trying to protect themselves from the swine flu. Uh, face masks? Do you honestly believe that if someone with the flu sneezes on you (or coughs and then touches the pole that you touch right after), your little mask is going to protect you? I think not. (Maybe if you had a gas mask, the filters would suffice...) It seems to be more about being fashionable and "in" on the latest paranoia than it is about actually protecting yourself.

In my lifetime, I've lived through several of "America's latest scare(s)". Here are just a very few that stand out in my mind and how most of us responded:

The Y2K Problem -- we braced ourselves for Armageddon! Everyone wondered if everything run by computer networks (which was pretty much everything by that point) would shut down or go haywire. The end of the world!!!

The MSG Cancer Scare -- to appease our fears, every food that had previously contained MSG no longer did. As soon as the fear subsided, it was back. (I read the labels. I noticed.)

and now,

The Swine Flu Outbreak -- because a few people have died, there are schools shutting down. (On a regular basis, people die from the flu everyday!!! What makes this any different? It's more than likely the fact that it's the first time this generation has experienced this particular strain.)

By clicking on the links provided and reading about the minuscule risks that were actually associated with these problems vs. how they were blown out of proportion, it kind of makes you wonder why.

Is it because it makes good news fodder? Do the news stations scare us in order to keep us tuning in? Or is there a whole big government conspiracy surrounding all of this? Does the government keep us so focused on the smaller risks that we're too preoccupied/busy to find out what's really going on?

I mean, I understand being paranoid. I'm a New Mom. I took the day off to rush my son to the hospital because of a stomach virus. But hey, he's 7 months old. And I'm a new mom. I've never dealt with any of this before with a child of my own. It's my job (and my husband's, of course) to help our baby survive. But I take this as a learning experience. I'm pretty sure (and we've been told) that we'll be a lot less afraid about every little thing with the next child. Because we'll have learned a lot from my experience with the first one.

You'd think that with there being something new to be afraid of everyday, Americans would tire of it all. Yet, most don't. We watch the news in hopes of learning something new.

Now, I'm not saying that all news is crap. Reporting can be just that. It's just when things get blown out of proportion the way they usually are that I wonder: What's next?

What do you think of all of this? Government Conspiracy? News station Tactics? Or actual news?