Hypervigilance and the Digital Age

Keywords: Cyberterrorism; Hypervigilance; PTSD;

Abstract: This paper discusses the development of a hypervigilant culture within the U.S., with attention-grabbing low-frequency incidents overshadowing the far deadlier but less sensational every day risks. While we now live in a modern world where people are living longer, free-er, and richer than ever before, more of us have become captives of fear. The author defines the condition of hypervigilance, illustrates the condition with historical examples, and then offers some solutions to the condition and ethical arguments for their consideration.

Introduction

In his 1933 inaugural address, U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt spoke the prescient words that forewarned of a coming century of hypervigilance when he declared that, “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes…” This “unreasoning” fear began with Emperor Hirohito, transitioned to the Third Reich, and continued on through the Soviet threat, China, Iran, and today manifests as a pantheon of boogeymen that threaten to destroy the collective ‘us’ at every turn. While there is a documented psychological need for allies and enemies, 1 there are also sound ethical and legal arguments against fearmongering and stoking public unrest. In the 21st century, the western world is absent of clear and definable enemies, and entire industries have sprung to define the ‘unseeable’ threats to our modern way of life. Although the current leading fear is undeniably that of aggressive stateless bodies, or ‘terrorists’, the more amorphous threat driving citizens to hypervigilance is that of cybersecurity. The minority that Westin2 terms privacy fundamentalists stoke the fear that technological advances will lead to a dystopian future and despotism.

Hypervigilance is often closely related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)3 but is applicable to a host of psychological states. This paper examines the post-World War 2, post-911, and post-Snowden hypervigilance within the western world related to data terrorism, and the ethical problems of the industries reliant on the perseverance of the condition. First, we define the condition of hypervigilance, and then outlines differences between hypervigilance in the third world versus that of those that live within the safety of the first world economies. We will illustrate the condition with historical examples of anti-technology manias and the modern celebrity cases that fuel the condition today, and finally examine the role of the militaryindustrial complex and its impact on the public psyche. After defining these conditions through illustrations, we will explore the impacts upon citizens, and then the ethical conundrums facing organizations, industry, and government related to hypervigilance in the digital age. Finally, we will offer some solutions to the condition and ethical arguments for their consideration. This paper argues that the condition of hypervigilance is ethically untenable, and has yielded diminishing returns since before Roosevelt warned of the condition. In short, the paper tigers of fear are truly the greatest risk to society and the public health here at the threshold of the twentyfirst century. We are, in Roosevelt’s terms, captives of fear in a world where people are living longer, free-er, and richer than at any time in the history of man.

To read the rest of this piece by Matthew T. Welden, click here.

Photo Credit:  BBC