How Fear Can Make You a Better Person
Philosophers and sages have long considered fear a tool for self-improvement—but no, cheap scares don’t count.
Americans have a complicated relationship with fear.
On the one hand, we enjoy fear enough to dedicate a holiday to it. This year, we will spend an estimated $9.1 billion celebrating Halloween. Horror films gross nearly half a billion dollars per year, and are known in Hollywood to have the best return on investment in the movie business. Quasi-dangerous activities like roller coasters are a big industry as well, following Hunter S. Thompson’s famous exhortation, “Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.”
