Worry Warts

I have always liked the attitude of Alfred E Neuman, the fictitious character and symbol who graces every cover of Mad Magazine. His motto is "What, Me Worry?" Alfred is more than a little laid back. He's practically in a coma when it comes to worry, believing that nothing is truly worth worrying about. So why do I admire the empty headed Alfred? It's because he is the antithesis of the "What should I worry about next generation" in which we now live. Too many people today worry too much about the wrong things.

Humans are just not good at assessing risk, and today's improved communication mediums means they get information about matters big and small that can cause them confusion about what is important and what is not. often the mediums propagandize silly matters and convert them into things about which we are told we should worry. Further, modern communication devices themselves can cause humans to turn the trivial matter into the worrisome one. Maybe that's why so many today worry about "terrorism" and "global warming" and so little about things like not using their credit cards too much or making sure they are parenting correctly.

So how can we find out what's is truly dangerous enough to worry about? We humans tend to respond to uncertainty with irrational emotion, fear, blame, paralysis than we should exhibit. Uncertainty also has a nasty way of making us conjure the very worst possibilities. With the questionable theory of global warming, for instance, the reaction is to imagine hellish temperatures, rising oceans, a planet in chaos. How many times have we read about "saving the planet" or that "we are all going to die because of global warming"? Truth is, we can neither save nor destroy the planet and the earth will not smother us in heat.

Whether global warming is real or not it makes no sense for us to exhibit hysterical behavior as a reaction to it. Most real problems humans face have solutions, and every generation has had some imagined problems that worried them too much. But instead of panicking and collectively wringing hands, those who were more focused on solution than worry did solve the problems of the age. In ancient times people worried about the sun burning our or burning up earth, in medieval times too many worried about witches casting evil spells and promoting devilish deeds. In the modern age we have worried too much about nuclear holocaust.

Most problems humans face are quickly solvable. Virtually every unsolvable problem we've faced in the past has turned out to be solvable, and the script has nearly always been the same for solving them. A band of clever, motivated people most often inventors and scientists, usually found an answer to the real problems and exposed the phony ones. the phony problems that worried people then....they just died of their own lack of credibility.

What we all should do is examine the worry we are told is critical in order to see if it is real and, more importantly, if it effects us whether we can do anything to thwart it. Check the source of information about the alleged next worry. Check it at many sources. Question what is stated. We should be skeptical and objective in evaluating something before blindly worrying ourselves about it . And if what we are told is a problem and seems to be much ado about nothing, don't let trendiness or media sources manipulate us into worrying about it.

We must become Alfred E Neuman and look the worry mongers in the eye and say, "What, me worry"?