Miscellany
A radio broadcast based on The War of the Worlds brought pandemonium to Quito, Ecuador, in 1949, as thousands of people attempted to escape impending Martian gas raids. A mob set fire to the radio station’s building, killing fifteen inside. Authorities were slow to respond; most police and soldiers had been sent to the countryside to fend off the aliens.
Miscellany
Eighth-century Persian scholar Ibn al-Muqaffa recorded a parable describing human existence. A man, fearing an elephant, dangles himself into a pit to hide but soon realizes a dragon waits at the bottom and rats are gnawing at the branches he’s holding on to. He then notices a beehive, tastes its honey, and becomes “diverted, unaware, preoccupied with that sweetness.” While he’s distracted, the rats finish gnawing the branches, and the man falls into the dragon’s mouth.
People react to fear, not love—they don’t teach that in Sunday school, but it’s true.
—Richard Nixon, 1975Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.
—Albert Camus, c. 1940Fear is a poor guarantor of a long life.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 44Suffering has its limit, but fears are endless.
—Pliny the Younger, c. 108Tell us your phobias and we will tell you what you are afraid of.
—Robert Benchley, 1935Fear has a smell, as love does.
—Margaret Atwood, 1972Dread attends the unknown.
—Nadine Gordimer, 1998An ugly sight, a man who’s afraid.
—Jean Anouilh, 1944