What are you afraid of?

[pecunium]

I'm afraid of lots of things. Mostly it's minor fears... I worry that some idiot on the road will be doing something stupid, and hit me.

I worry that an earthquake will tumble my house down around my ears.

Those are rational fears, and I do what I can to minimize the effect. I keep good following disatance, I don't drive faster than the general flow of traffic, I have food and water, on hand (and some in the back of the car, in case it should break down. Blankets and first aid materials are there too).

There are other fears, less rational... the fear of a police helicopter falling out of the sky and landing on me, of some serial killer deciding on me as a victim.

There is the vaguest of possibilities that either of those might come to pass, and (barring some minor, and normal, precautions, nothing I can do to prevent them.

Volvo has sold cars for years, on the first sort of fears. Those were decent campaigns (summed up in the film "Crazy People" with an ad "They're boxy, but they're safe). They addressed a real problem, and offered a solution.

Today, however, I saw an ad, by Volvo, selling irrational fear.

A woman's car is the only one in the lot, late at night. She's nervous. The voiceover makes sure you think she has reason(after all, it's dark, it's late, never mind the lights in the parking lot make it possible to see the whole area), and then offers the solution to her nameless dread.

Her car, you see, has a "Heartbeat detector" which lets her know that someone has slipped into her car.

At which point she, having been saved from whatever nefarious intent the unknown person in her car had planned, runs (not walks, but runs) away.

Yep, that's a reasonable fear... someone will lie in wait, inside your car (having defeated the alarm), but never fear, if you have a Volvo, you'll be protected.

If this is the price we have to pay for them making the cars sleeker, let them go back to boxy.

Comments

[elemirion]

I think I have about three biggest fears.
1. Spiders, I hate them, don't want to be around them at all but my house has daddy long leg spiders all over it at the moment cuz they get rid of the other bugs that I don't want in my house.

2. Being forgotten. I don't know why I have that fear. I can't seem to find a reason for it.

3. Of never seeing my friends again...speaking of which, did you ever tell Jerry that I was living back in the bay area, and stalk,um I mean looking for him..

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

Did you know that daddy longlegs' mouthparts are shaped in such a way that it is impossible for them to bite a human?

[elemirion]

yes, which is why I don't kill them. They are also purported to have some of the most toxic venom in spiders there is, but again, they can't bite you. I just don't want them in my bed or walking on me...(sudder)

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

I'm not an arachnophobe, but I don't want them in my bed either, don't blame you.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Well, you don't have to be afraid of them, they aren't actually spiders (even though they are arachnids).

Yes, I did tell him.

TK

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

That's the difference between a fear and a phobia. In the case of a fear, learning that they object of the fear cannot possibly harm you, or that you can easily prevent it from harming you, reduces the fear to (usually) a slight uneasiness. In the case of a phobia, it doesn't matter at all. If spiders cleaned the bathroom and baked chocolate cake, and their bite was a cure for migraine, I still wouldn't have any in the house.

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

*nods*

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and if he has disabled the alarm, why couldn't he disable that? Much more likely he'll grab her while she's still fumbling for her keys and not bother with the car. Again andagain women are taught to be afraid of walking alone at night, and even though plenty of men get mugged, they are not inculcated with this fear. Why is that? It's almost as if women should know better than to go out of the house without a mahram or they're asking for it. See the criticism of the Central Park Jogger, for instance.

Me? I'm afraid of heights, and the one recurring nightmare I have had throughout my life involves nuclear war. I only go up to high places with a railing, or stay far away from the edge. I feel it is less and less likely that I can do anything to prevent stupid hairless monkeys from blowing us all to smithereens, though.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't want to drift the stereotypes into this too much, but the "she's a woman, and so in peril" was a strong part of the imagery.

The detector let her know, about 30 yards from the car, that's why she was "safe".

Let's not talk about false positives, complacence (the odds are so slim that one wonders how long, after the novelty wears off, one will look to see if the "heartbeat warning light" is on) or all the other things which make it unlikely the system will actually work (as opposed to being merely functional).

TK

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Let's not talk about false positives, complacence (the odds are so slim that one wonders how long, after the novelty wears off, one will look to see if the "heartbeat warning light" is on) or all the other things which make it unlikely the system will actually work (as opposed to being merely functional).

I could type for hours about how I find that ad offensive and that "feature" pointless in the extreme. To make a long story short, my instant reaction the first time I saw the ad was "Fuck that! If you want to make the damn thing SAFE, make sure nobody can get the hell into it, don't tell me after the fact that they have!"

[indigodaisy.livejournal.com]

i've seen that commercial! The question I had was, "do people really worry about that anymore?" I mean with my jeep which you can unzip to enter .. maybe .. but normal cars with automatic locking doors?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Hell, I never knew anyone did worry about it.

If you worry about it, you lock the doors (and these days, set the alarm).

And you look to see what the car looks like as you approach.

It's situational awareness 101, and that's mental, no piece of widgetry can give it to you, so getting this gadget won't fix the problem.

TK

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I always lock the doors. I set the alarm if I'm going to be away from the car overnight and it's not at someone's house (e.g., when I go to Nashville this Friday, the car is staying in a parking lot at UT, so I'll set the alarm). I glance around the car and into the back seat before I get in. As you said, situational awareness.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

The only time I ever worried about anything like that was after I had successfully litigated a protection from abuse order for a seven-year-old girl against her stepfather, so I had a specific reason to worry (he had a history of putting his fist through things). This sort of generalized fearmongering makes ADT ads look tasteful and reasonable.

[kodi]

Hell, I never knew anyone did worry about it.

From before I could drive, I was taught "always look in the back seat before you get in the car." It was so deeply ingrained that it took me two years to stop checking behind the seats of my two-seater convertible, I guess in case I was being mugged by the denizens of Flatland.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I don't really see that as "worrying". I look at the car before I get in. Check the tires, look for leaks, and glance in the seats.

It's not worry. I'm not approaching the car going.... "Oh my god, the tires will be flat, the radiator will be empty and there will be a man with a hook in the back seat."

TK

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Points for getting Flatland into the conversation!

[lexica510.livejournal.com]

It's not a fear of heights — I actually quite like heights — but I almost always have the same thought cross my mind as I approach a cliff (or edge of a rooftop, or whatever): Eek, what if I'm suddenly seized by the compulsion to cast myself over the edge?

It's never happened, and I don't know why I think of it every time.

And I'm sooooo tired of "BE AFRAID!!!" messages.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Amelia Earhart says this fear is why airplanes don't cause it so much. On the edge of a precipice one has the, irrational, sense one could just step off.

My fear of heights is that someone else will push me; or that I have (when climbing something) managed to get myself to a point where I can't go on, and can't go back.

TK

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

Eek, what if I'm suddenly seized by the compulsion to cast myself over the edge?

You are the third person I hear that from. It seems to be common enough tought.

My uneasiness about heights is caused by knowing that I'm clumsy.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Someone at Volvo has been reading too many email forwards.

[shelly-rae.livejournal.com]

But she'll be screwed if the person waiting for her is a Vampire! Cause really? I worry about that lots more...heh.
Anon

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

You forgot zombies!

[shelly-rae.livejournal.com]

But zombies don't have enough brains to break into a Volvo nor the patience to wait! Vampires however are very patient.
Anon

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

You have a point there....but if it's Jean-Claude he can wait in my car any day.

[raaven.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Of all the fear-mongering crap that goes on these days, the staid old "(Helpless, delicate) women should always be afraid" sort irks me, perhaps, the most.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

If you're afraid of someone getting into your car and hiding, get a Volvo. Among other things, I investigate car thefts - Mercedes and BMWs aplenty, you have tractors with better security than Ferraris - but I've never had a Volvo stolen that wasn't stolen with a key (you could always break the window but I suppose that puts a cramp on hiding in the back seat.)

As for irrational fears, I'm claustrophobic. The idea of being underground fills me with dread - much to the hilarity of my family.

That commercial irks me

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

When I worked at the ad agency we had a fear monger come to give a talk about 'security' (he was selling hand-held pepper spray and air horns....). He insisted that the most common attacker at the current time was felons waiting underneath cars to leap out at women. My brain went WTF? and then I raised my hand and pointed out that a lot of cars you'd have to be less than 6-8 inches thick to hide under, much less 'jump' out. His response, "you will be sadly mistaken."

What a piece of crap. I lock my car mostly because my neighborhood has someone who occasionally goes through the cars for drugs, money, keys and smokes. He never breaks windows and the thing that pisses me off the most is he leaves everything open AND he smokes. I always look over my car before I even go to it, partly because at a short distance, you can see if the tires are low, if there is a pool of any kind of fluid, etc.

And the only car we can't see into easily, the minivan, has an alarm system. My other cars have been sports/small cars, right now I'm driving a mystique and if I can't see someone in the back seat I'd need to stop driving.

Situational awareness is vital. I live in what amounts to nearly inner city, Being afraid to go out my door, no. Being afraid to shop on the street, no. And the one employee who bought the pepper spray? Somehow it got left with the guard off on her night stand. She shot herself in the face looking for something on her nightstand in the dark....owwww/.

Re: That commercial irks me

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

He insisted that the most common attacker at the current time was felons waiting underneath cars to leap out at women. My brain went WTF? and then I raised my hand and pointed out that a lot of cars you'd have to be less than 6-8 inches thick to hide under,

Heh. I usually check under my car before driving off, because the neighborhood cats love to hide under a nice, warm car. Occasionally they get their back fur burned off, but they never learn. Anything bigger than a large tomcat would be in a whole lot of pain if they crawled under a recently-driven car, and *not* get out from under it quickly if they needed to.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is, I csn see a very real use for the capability you described, for a scenario which unfortunately happens much more often than a prowler in the car: sleeping children accidentally left in locked cars. Years ago, my husband once had to pick up my sister at the airport, was late and dashed out of the car, forgetting that on that morning he had my son as I was unavailable. Fortunately, he remembered just as he got to the gate, and the car was in a not-too-hot covered parking garage, but still, things like this do happen. A flashing light on his keyfob to notify him that someone was still in the car even though he had locked the doors would have been useful. But then that wouldn't have that "woman in peril" thing, would it?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It probably doesn't work any further than 10-20 yards.

TK

[moropus.livejournal.com]

Remember that email forward about some crazed lunatic waiting under cars with a knife to cut ladies' legs? My boss actually sent it to everyone and got totally PO'ed when I sent back a private little email asking why this serial brutality hadn't been on any of the major news channels or in the 2 papers delivered to our office everyday for general consumption.

Then there was the one about 'them' throwing a flaming bottle of alcohol into your car at a traffic light if you had your windows down.

There's enough real things to be afraid of. We don't need to invent more and I will never buy from anyone trying to play on my fears.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

Goody! I can't wait for the Robocop security system -- you remember -- the one that fatally electrocutes the carnapper when he tries to start the engine.
What am I afraid of? My kids having to deal with the effects of global warming. I'm also afraid of falling.

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid of bugs, policemen, and going to the dentist.

My other fears are all very boring and, unfortunatley, more-or-less reasonable.