Things sometimes have a tendency to come in threes.

For instance, take the trilogy of Chinese curses:

1. May you live in interesting times.

2. May you come to the attention of those in authority.

3. May you find what you are looking for.

A variation of the first Chinese curse could be: May you live in scary times.

Scary times is more direct than interesting time.

While we are in the Halloween season, one can say these are scary times. According to a Purdue University mass media effects expert, while monsters and ghosts (vampires and zombies) are a big part of the Halloween fright tradition, when those sorts of specific fears are combined with fear of the unknown, the overall fright intensity can be quite high.

“Fear is based on our judgment of the threat we are experiencing,” said Glenn Sparks, a professor of communication. “That level can be intensified if there are unknowns about the threat, because uncertainty is an ingredient that feeds into general anxiety.”

 And there’s a lot of uncertainty feeding into society nowadays, especially from the mass media.

There’s the uncertainty of the economic crisis the world is going through; the uncertainty of climate change; the uncertainty of the flu pandemic: and the uncertainty of change.

When things are already uncertain for you, especially about your job, your health, public safety; or personal debt, then throw in an agenda of political change hammered into your perspective in the most negative of terms, then for some people who are struggling for stability in their personal lives, these really are scary times.