Terror Alert up a Notch

Hummm ...Here we are are so what is this new alert? From 'be a bit scared but its not too bad' to okay 'now you need be at nearly poo your pants' stage. Clearly once you have actually defecated over your Calvin Kline's then you know stage 4 is here.

While I agree there should be a warning system we, as a race, are not bio-engineered to be constantly scared. We are survivors so we process the new information and set out own mental alerts. Fear comes in waves with specific triggers. Look at the millions who live on the San Andreas fault or in the shadow of Vesuvius most of the time they live and laugh and cry. But one wee tremor or a rumble of ash and fear comes to the surface. They hold their collective breath and the threat passes and life continues as before.

In the 80s (God now I feel old) I would cack myself at the sound of a siren. The four minute warning was the BIG THING. Jason Robards was in The Day After Anthony Andrews in Z for Zacharia and the threat of all out Nuclear warfare looked survivable - for some at any rate. And that is the problem right there...HOPE...it may happen but not to us, it may happen but we will be okay-ish, it may happen and we will survive with interesting scars and stories or it may happen and we won't know anything about it. We saw survivors among the catastrophe. We rely on our ability to endure, but maybe one day we won't.
There will always be evil in the world. There will always be good. There will always be fear, it is what keeps us alive. But when we are told stage 3 out of 4 it should be a tangible and specific threat otherwise we become complacent, Vesuvius will erupt again the San Andreas fault will move dramatically again, but if we are constantly told to be alert and nothing happens we will not believe it. Not even when it really hurts.