I don't think it's society, especially when it's a society in a country that traditionally values freedom and individuals' rights. What is behind this new culture of fear is politics: fear is great for manipulating the masses, most effective when those who promote it can present themselves as a solution.

>What is behind this new culture of fear is politics: fear is great for manipulating the masses, most effective when those who promote it can present themselves as a solution.

I hear people from all walks of life make claims like this constantly. While I don't doubt that some use fear to purposefully manipulate us, I do not see it as the norm. The media doesn't care about controlling us. It cares about it's viewership. If fears sells, you can bet your ass they're going to scare the hell out of us. They don't care about dumbing us down, but if all we want to see is celebrity gossip, they're going to oblige.

I was far from a fan of Steve Jobs, but that's one thing where I really agree with him:

  When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a
  conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when
  you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks
  are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a
  far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can
  shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks
  are really in business to give people what they want.

Which doesn't necessarily make his suggestion a bad idea, though. That broadcasting FUD is a profitable business model doesn't make it an ethical one.

>The media doesn't care about controlling us. It cares about it's viewership.

Not really. The Media are tied knee-deep with other interests -- from the political interests (of most op-eds) to the financial interest of huge media conglomerates and empires.

Of course they are interest to control you.

In the very least they want to control: your viewing habits (duh!), your purchasing habits (ads), your voting habits (op-eds, news), etc etc.

> especially when it's a society in a country that traditionally values freedom and individuals' rights

You're not hearing what I said. It's exactly that tradition that causes the culture of fear. Our society is designed to minimize the influence one random person has over another. One of the things that falls out from that design is a hue and cry any time the suggestion of a bad influence of one person over another is possible.

> One of the things that falls out from that design is a hue and cry any time the suggestion of a bad influence of one person over another is possible.

Fear isn't the wish to be left alone by other people and it certainly isn't more prevalent in societies where what you describe as its cause (bad influence of one person over another) occurs less often (as you wrote).

Fear is caused by what we perceive as real and imminent threats. If we are told convincingly that certain threats are more "real" than they actually are (as with terrorism, which apparently justifies a trillion-dollar security theater), we will have this emotion more often, whether we are free or not.