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Sept. 11 soon came along and gave us an actual crisis to focus on. But it was hardly the end of turning fear into infotainment. If anything, terrorism became more fodder...
...years since, society's fear of (and fascination with) sharks and terrorism has not abated. However, we've added a handful of other apocalyptic anxieties: mass extinction, proliferating nukes, global flooding, swine flu, bird flu, peak oil, economic collapse. The end of the world has long been the subject of a popular genre of TV, books and movies. Now, in the 21st century tradition of fear as entertainment, it has its own reality show. In Discovery's The Colony, 10 volunteers are barricaded in a warehouse, without running water or electricity, to simulate surviving after the end of civilization...
...suddenly made headlines--a surfer recalls getting bit on the leg and a news van beating the ambulance to the scene. TV choppers swarmed the Gulf of Mexico, and Larry King asked, "Are sharks rebelling?" (Full disclosure: TIME ran a "Summer of the Shark" cover.) But by season's end, fewer people had been attacked by sharks in the U.S. than during the summer before...
...Colony's scenario, a pandemic did us in. But, the show helpfully notes, it could have been "human conflict, nuclear bombs, natural disasters, chemical and biological warfare. Without warning, the world as we know it can come to an end." Until it does, enjoy the show...
...Colony, every week is Shark Week. And what with upcoming apocalypse movies like The Road and 2012 and the end-of-days rumblings of talk TV and radio, the same is now true for the rest of us. Superterrorists, natural disasters and megaviruses are not imaginary. But they're more viscerally scary and easier to apprehend than vital but boring systemic problems like the economy and public health...