I think I have mentioned before how much I enjoy the pseudo- science claptrap on Discovery, The Learning Channel and Animal “If its alive, it wants to kill you” Planet. Hell, I WANT to be one of the talking heads spouting the claptrap. Casting Agents can contact me via this website. There are a number of programs that I really enjoy: Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and um…. okay, its a small number.
But I digress. It seems these channels are subject to Medical Student Syndrome. That is what happens when a Med student starts to believe they suffer from any illness they read about in their medical texts. The Indonesian Tsunami is a good example. They immediately pop up with “AMERICAS TSUNAMI, ARE WE NEXT?”. Holy crap, I have to worry about that too? Terrorists, carjacking, boogie men of all kinds, and now I have to worry about waves, asteroids, West Nile virus and also according to Discovery, Yellowstone National Park is gonna BLOW UP. Hell, they even had a show once on when pets attack. Think about that next time you are considering buying your kid an ant farm for their birthday.
Look, fear is not a bad thing. It is an important skill that we have honed over thousands of years of evolution that has helped us avoid being eaten among other inconveniences. But there is a vast gulf between fear as a personal tool of survival and a tool of mass manipulation. Ever wonder why the Homeland Security Advisory System has never, ever been lower that “elevated” since the day it was started?
