Unsubstantiated fear (Visual TOW #24)

       Ebola, with the virus’s deathly rampant throughout the world, is immediately associated with fear, death, and foreboding. Hysteria finds its ground, especially in nations which had seen but not felt the devastating impact of the horrendous virus, and United States of America is one of the platforms.

       Ever since the Ebola epidemic broke out in Africa, millions were put into misery. Witnessing the tragedy, many Americans’ sympathy was overcome by their trepidation, resulting in calls for a renewed isolationist policy. However, the fear is largely unsubstantiated, and many critics even find Americans’ sudden turn toward isolation extremely ironic, considering their long-tradition of intervention. One such critic group, the Sacramento Bee, ridicules American’s conservative and fear-oriented view through a sardonic political cartoon comparing Ebola to other leading-causes of death in America, pushing Americans to realize the inherent hypocrisy of their Ebola-hysteria.

       The two main strategies the cartoonist employed to deride the Ebola fear are imagery and statistics. The cartoon features America is a fat, bold man drinking alcohol, eating fast-food, and smoking cigar while crying in trepidation “Ebola!” The image itself immediately arouses a sense of hypocrisy in the American readers. A nation characterized and enveloped by so many unhealthy traits screams like a frightened children in front of an emergent disease. Though the disease is deadly, the other insidious trends consuming American lives are not much better. Americans can daily just look pass the fast-food, the cigar, and the alcohol, but when Ebola emerges, they seem to lose their wits altogether.

       Acting along the picture are the numbers that convince the American readers even more of the innate hypocrisy of their Ebola fear. The numbers read : “Obesity 300,000 a year, Tobacco 450,000 a year, Alcohol 88,000 a year.” These enormous numbers are the number of deaths each cause annually in US, validated by scientific research. Americans are dying by millions and they are worrying over a epidemic disease that had yet to take more than ten lives on their home soil. The paradox is clearly presented and the American readers can have little choice but to acknowledge the ridiculousness of their Ebola fear.

       Let’s face the fact.