America used to be a nation of solutions, but today we just want to know what to call "it". Why is American society so obsessed with labels?

SPC Rory J. Mattheisen — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 13:13:36 -0400

Generations of our best and brightest brought innovations to the world that ended infectious outbreaks, turned deserts into farmland and revolutionized warfare. Today people seem to latch on to anything just to feel fear. Since I was school age it was AIDs, Killer Bees, Hanta Virus, and now we are at Z with the Zika Virus. People seem to stop caring about what is going on as soon as it has a name

Response by CPL Richard Flagg made Jun 11 at 2016 1:19 PM

CPL Richard Flagg — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 13:19:56 -0400

I think all these labels are to distract us from the really important issues of the day. With people all hot and bothered by such things as Zika, Ebola, etc people's minds are taken away by the issues here at home and abroad.

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made Jun 11 at 2016 2:00 PM

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 14:00:14 -0400

Good Point.

Response by Col Rebecca Lorraine made Jun 11 at 2016 5:55 PM

Col Rebecca Lorraine — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 17:55:23 -0400

Interesting.

Response by MSG Stan Hutchison made Jun 11 at 2016 6:15 PM

MSG Stan Hutchison — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 18:15:11 -0400

In my opinion (such as it is) I think humans cannot accept the unknown. We fear the darkness. We fear that which is different. I would imagine this generates far back, back to the times we came stumbling out of the caves. We have always been an inquisitive race and we just cannot accept we do not presently know everything. We are indeed getting there, but the unknown, the unexplainable, the darkness still scares us.
So, we have to label it so it is not so scary.

Response by SGT Victoria Belbusti made Jun 11 at 2016 7:36 PM

SGT Victoria Belbusti — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 19:36:43 -0400

I like how it says we " latch onto fear". I feel our advances in technology has made life easier for us so we are essentially bored. We no longer have hunt for our food so we find other stuff to occupy ourselves with and over the years it's gradually gotten more and more tedious.

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Jun 13 at 2016 1:47 PM

Cpl Justin Goolsby — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 13:47:51 -0400

Have you ever seen the movie Arlington Road? The movie itself is about terrorism and there's a scene that really resonated with me. They go on to describe how someone felt after a specific terrorist act and most students felt afraid. Then they asked how they felt after they identified the attackers and the students said they felt better.

We feel safe because we know their name. We can say... see this one is different. We compartmentalize everything and in order to feel safe, we need to be able to identify something.

Response by MSgt James Mullis made Jun 13 at 2016 2:40 PM

MSgt James Mullis — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 14:40:01 -0400

I think you may confuse what the "Media" is currently talking about with what regular "Americans" are actually concerned about. The Media and their short news cycle create waves of discussion (Breaking News 24/7) that artificially inflate the importance of some subjects while completely ignoring more important (but less flashy) subjects. Add to this the drive to receive funding for pet projects (ala the pandemic flu and Americas crumbling infrastructure) and you end up with apparent tsunamis of concern over subjects, that disappear overnight, only to reappear for next budget cycle.

Response by SGT Jose Perdelia-Torres made Jun 13 at 2016 11:15 PM

SGT Jose Perdelia-Torres — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:15:11 -0400

because they make mankind feel superior when they (labels) are utilized. We love to put others down and we fear what we don't understand. We teach kindergartners to remember the "golden/silver rule"; but if adults could remember it, we wouldn't have as much chaos.