Should Lauren Scare People?

 I think the idea of teaching people rather than scaring them is a common idea in our world as well and while I realize the issues with scaring people I don’t think that Lauren was out of place with what she said. I understand that scaring people may not be the best way to go about it but that future that Lauren was talking about  and that life is their reality and if that reality is as bad as it is it should scare people. Lauren didn’t make up a fantastical story meant to scare people into fleeing, she shared what seems to me, to be a very possible future for the people in the neighborhood. I think if she had made something up with the intent on scaring people it would be very different but when people ignore reality because it’s scary, that’s not helping anyone. 

Lauren isn’t scaring people, the reality of the future is. Maybe it’s enough to educate people on ways to survive that future without telling them that’s what’s happening but I think in the long run that could be detrimental. People should confront their reality and what the future may hold while they’re in a position where they can process it and be more prepared rather than a sudden event forcing them to use their training and them not being able to handle it emotionally even if they have the needed survival skills.

What do you guys think? Is it ok that she's scaring people? Do you think that scaring people could help or do you think it hurts? Anything else?

Comments

  1. L. MoffittApril 16, 2021 at 7:07 AM

    This quote really resonated with me because it had the feeling of truth -- but not entirely. Maybe Lauren's father is making a false dichotomy here. Who says you can't do both? Sometimes people need to be scared out of their complacency and then given solid knowledge to know what to do with the problem. I didn't really know how I felt about this quote until just now, honestly, reading your post!

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  2. DinaApril 16, 2021 at 7:17 AM

    I feel like Lauren is taking the only action she thinks will get the attention of the people she's trying to talk to. I think it's ok to scare people as long as you're using the facts of the matter and not fabricating anything.

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  3. Olivia TaylorApril 16, 2021 at 7:17 AM

    This is really interesting and something I also thought about while reading. I also think that depending on the type of person you are, you might need to be scared to actually do anything, but there are also people who wouldn't be able to prepare if she scared them, because they would be too busy panicking. I think Lauren's dad was right that if she went around the neighborhood scaring people, it might not do that much good, but I also agree that eventually people need to stop ignoring their very real future.

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