Fear Less: Real Truth About Risk, Safety, and Security in a Time of Terrorism

For anyone who has read any of DeBecker's other writings (the excellent Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift) many of this book's themes will be familiar. For new readers who are concerned about travelling post-9/11 or want to know more about terrorism: its image and its reality.DeBecker is one of the world's leading authorities on violent behaviour, security and, most importantly, what YOU can do to make things safer for yourself and those around you. Working from the premise that we all have extrememly finely tuned intuition but spend most of our time ignoring it, DeBecker explores the effects of terrorism as a weapon to induce fear - even when danger is not necessarily present.With respect to 9/11 he explores a number of reports that came out following the disaster that showed that the terrorist cells had aroused suspicion during their preparation for the hijackings. Unfortunately these suspicions were often trivialised and discounted immediately or ignored because most people ignore or override their own in-built warning systems.The book looks at a scale of warning signs and puts forward ideas and strategies for dealing with a number of issues from reporting suspicious behaviour to the authorities to addressing airline security. It also covers the media's role in driving up the fear factor on the issue of terrorism and especially biochem attacks. DeBecker offers a sober examination of the practicalities of biochem attacks, the risks and possible responses, drawing on expert consultants to debunk the melodrama that is used to sell papers and get ratings.This is a fascinating book that tends to strip away a lot of the knee-jerk reaction to these dangers to public safety and works to put the security of the public back into the hands of the public. Wider reaching than his first two books, Fear Less shines a scrutinising light into the dark corners of public fear in the modern world and pulls out some gems of information that once read will stay with you forever.

The essence of this book's advice is in the title to my review.There are two good parts of this book. First, the author points out in great detail all of the ways that television newscasters vastly overstate terrorist threats and events, and advises you to stop watching television news and read reliable sources instead. But hopefully, you knew that already. Second, airplanes would be safer from terrorists if the pilots had a solid, locked door and observed simple precautions when coming in and out to the rest rooms. Added together, you would have a reasonably interesting magazine article for an airline magazine.The rest of the book is basically a waste of time from my point of view. It says not to fantasize about terrorists and terrorist acts. But if you notice something really suspicious, call the police. Terrorists almost always give themselves away during the preparations. Many, many examples are given. You get a list of strange things that terrorists might do (as well as how to avoid a charging kangaroo, which is a greater statistical risk than being harmed by a terrorist). If you find any of this enlightening, I wonder where you have been living since September 11th.For someone with as much knowledge as Mr. De Becker is supposed to have about stopping violent acts, he certainly manages to share very little of it in this book. For example, his most specific advice is how to be safer on an airplane: don't sit near people who make you uncomfortable and try to sit near big, strong guys who will want to attack any potential terrorists. How can you know if your hulking potential seatmate wants to attack terrorists? Ask him. Okay . . . . .I was pleased, however, that Mr. De Becker suggests that we remember the innocent people who are injured or killed by the battles that are fought by our country or encouraged by our policies. More of these foreign innocents will probably suffer physical harm than will Americans from foreign terrorist acts.As I finished this book, I wondered why I had picked it up. I guess I was wondering how I might help people who have a lot of fear since the terrorist attacks. I'll be sure to tell them to stop watching televised news. But I have already told them that. I guess I don't have anything else to pass along based on reading this book.

This book is a must have for everyone. It gives a great insight into the concepts of intuition or "gut feelings" and how we often ignore the verbal, physical and other signs that signal danger. I bought 4 copies of this book and plan to buy more so I can give them away to people that I care about. Our family is going to do an abbreviated study from this book with our children, ranging from 15-24 to keep passing on the information on down the line. Some of the situations and topics can be uncomfortable, but the point is that we need to be more situationally attentive to our surroundings. If the elevator doors open and you feel uncomfortable with the person or persons you see in the elevator then get over your need to be "nice" and don't get on the elevator. Their feelings may be hurt but better that than you. Paying attention to the signs that present themselves will help you avoid a situation that may turn dangerous or even deadly before you can escape. Unlike books that teach how to fight back, the purpose of this book is to evade before the situation escalates to a point that you have to fight or it is too late to fight.

If the country had followed the author's sensible counsel, we would be 1000 times better off today. Instead, panic and hysteria won the day, and (after the Boston Marathon bombing), they are STILL winning.If you want to at least gain personal perspective and a better outlook on life than what is unfortunately the current American norm, this is an excellent book to read.I hope the country regains its perspective and sanity at some point. Overreacting hurts us worse than terrorism does.

Good book to make you take notice of your surroundings.

Ignorance is dangerous and can cause serious emotional scars when things are treated as impossible. Your entire sense of false security is shattered when that "impossible" event occurs. If you experience such an event first hand in this state of ignorance you're less likely to respond in a way that will keep you alive. If you do survive you're more likely to be an emotional victim with PTSD. This book is a little slow in places but does a very good job at altering your perspective from "I hope it never happens" to "It has been attempted (or happened) and will happen and I can deal with it when it does".

Some interesting new vignettes but lacks the power of the original Gift of Fear, a work I consider essential reading and a must own book. If you've already read that book, you really don't need this one. The essential points have already been covered. It's certainly not a bad book by any means, it's just doesn't hold its own against the extremely high standard of his first work. Seems like he rushed this one to press without giving it the full attention it deserves. It's probably worth buying used but I regret paying full price.Lawrence KaneAuthor of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction