"People today would rather have their fears praised and confirmed than disputed and allayed.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it."
—Tom Gilleece
The world has never had fewer wars, more freedom (although that is changing fast), lower mortality rate etc.... People need their fears to get attention.. or so they think.
If you cherry pick a small enough time scale, that claim will hold up. Otherwise, we disagree. People are afraid because they allow the media to terrify them. The media are the real terrorists.
@TimTuolomne The media needs money. Fear sells.