The Trepidation-Sedation Syndrome

I am coining a new phrase here at Planet Waves. This term describes the long-term social and psychological effects from the practice of government and corporate risk communication — the communication of potential environmental hazards to an affected public. The term is Trepidation-Sedation Syndrome. Trepidation is a state of alarm or dread; apprehension. Sedation is the act of calming by administration of a sedative; syndrome, the pattern of symptoms that characterize or indicate a particular social condition.

In response to the explosions of Unit-3, containment attempts at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant seem to be proceeding with little result. Enter the state of trepidation-sedation. It’s the same tack used by BP during the Deepwater Horizon Spill last year, where BP played a game of cat and mouse with the press, the government and the people of the Gulf states over actual volume of the massive, endless rush of oil gushing from the crack in their well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. We are witnessing this again with growing frustration over the lack of complete information from the Japanese government. They rely on TEPCO — the Tokyo Electrical Power Company — for information on the actual facts on the ground at the Daiichi site. It seems like they’re not getting it.

There is a long history of lies by TEPCO to the Japanese people and their government. There are the lies of previous government administrations over the safety of Japan’s nuclear power plants. And then there is the worldwide, corporate-driven effort to downplay the ramifications of this accident and the riskiness of managing nuclear power. While most of our apprehensions were assuaged or stifled over the decades, the clock has run out. We have been sedated long enough.

Witness members of a traditionally calm Japanese public reacting to trepidation-sedation like patients in the throes of drug withdrawal.

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