Did you know that false alarms not only cost millions of dollars for the government but also waste thousands of man hours. On the 11th of September this year I was watching the news and heard the story of the airplane that left Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and was heading towards San Francisco – its destination. However it was diverted to Dallas because someone found an unclaimed Blackberry in the passenger compartment. What? Someone force landed an airplane for a blackberry? I could not believe my ears, but that is true (of course, the fact that this happened on September 11th made it more suspicious and fearful and I think the authorities were probably right to be cautious to prevent a disaster).
The flight not only landed in a wrong place but it took several hours for security to figure out that this was just a regular blackberry forgotten by a previous passenger. It was a false alarm, but in times of fear and suspicion that’s all it takes to create panic among the passengers, the airline authorities and the whole nation. One of the news reader said “no matter how much the government spends on security and how advance our technology is, most Americans continue to live in fear, the fear of another major attack”.
Alarms were invented to alert us from a possible danger, but when systems become unreliable they become a nuisance.
Alarms were invented to alert us from a possible danger, but when systems become unreliable (around 90% of the calls are false alarms) they become a nuisance. Aesop the wise man from ancient times wrote the story of a bored shepherd boy who entertained himself by calling out “Wolf”. Every time he cried out “wolf”, all the nearby villagers came to rescue him and his sheep, only to find that he was kidding and that there was no real wolf. One day the boy was really confronted by a wolf, he started crying “wolf” and no villager showed up because they did not believe his cries and the wolf killed the boy. There is an important lesson to be learnt from this story. The villagers had a real problem to deal with – the wolf, but when the boy started playing with the fears of the people and created imaginary problems he became a nuisance to them.
Unfortunately most of us spend many hours each day with the bored shepherd boys who are just having fun giving us some imaginary problems.
It is important to understand that every person has to deal with wolfs (real problems that exist) but unfortunately most of us spend many hours each day with the bored shepherd boys who are just having fun giving us some imaginary problems. Mark Zentner and Jeff Kulley in a brochure entitled “Are you living in fear?” note “We all have a built-in system that’s supposed to alert us to danger so that we’re ready to either defend ourselves (fight) or escape (flight). It’s the old “fight/flight response.” We need this alarm system so that we don’t get eaten by bears, flattened by busses, or whatever. But when you have a panic attack, your alarm system goes off without any real danger. It’s like a “false alarm” that goes off, signaling danger that isn’t really there or is much less serious than your reaction suggests. It’s kinda like those car alarms that go off in the middle of the night because a cat jumps on the car, or the wind blows, or someone sneezes two blocks away . . . kind of annoying!”
The problem with false alarms is not just that they are annoying, but they drain our lives so much that we are paralyzed and have no energy left to deal with actual problems. False alarms cause unnecessary worry and anxiety but can actually heighten our physiological arousal level and make it easier to have future panic attacks. In the words of Zentner and Kulley “It’s like walking around with a totally full cup of coffee all the time-you’re a lot more likely to have spill-over when you’re brimming full with anxiety”. There are a lot of people in this world who are trying to carry a lot of anxiety and worry, most of them are imaginary.
Mark 6 describes an incidence when the disciples were terrified and thought that they were gonna die when they saw someone walking towards them on the water. Anxiety led to unnecessary imagination, they all thought that it was a ghost, in reality it was Jesus who was walking to them on water. Immediately Jesus spoke to them and said “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (6:50). We live in a world of many uncertainties; no wonder many live as if they are walking around with full cups of coffee, as God’s children we can relax because God is in control. Life has enough of real problems (wolfs) to be concerned about, let not the shepherd boys keep you busy with imaginary wolfs.
The problem with false alarms is not just that they are annoying, but they drain our lives so much that we are paralyzed and have no energy left to deal with actual problems.
– – Author: Rev. Francis Burgula – –
