Excerpt
“I wanted to start out by saying that this has been a very lengthy process and required much time and effort to develop. My colleagues and I have paid the ultimate sacrifices to achieve the goal we set out to attain. Now, I believe we have”, said Winston as the lights dimmed and the screen honed in on the human brain above.
“To get right to the point, this is your brain. We’ve all seen it, none of us totally understand it, but there it is. In the center of this brain is a structure known as the amygdala. This almond shaped structure represents a focal point of emotional response. Specifically, this is the control center for fear, anxiety and the fight-or-flight response.
“Whenever you see something that disturbs you, threatens you, terrifies you, puts you on edge, this segment of the brain responds to it. With its connection to the hypothalamus a bevy of psychological, as well as physiological responses can result.
“When you’re scared of something, what happens? You become pale, your heart can race, the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, you breathe harder, your palms sweat, you become weak, and in some cases nauseated. These are part of the sympathetic nervous system's ‘fight-or-flight’ response. It is an archaic, simian response that has been around since man was first conceived. In prehistoric times, it was the most basic response by a mammal on Earth. If something threatened you, this response kicked in. You would either run from the stimulus or dig in and fight.
“For years, researchers have been trying to develop agents that would heighten the ‘fight-or-flight’ response for the avenues of war, specifically targeting the aggressive fight response in soldiers. That has been met with very little success. Stimulating people’s urge to fight has become increasingly harder in a civilization where combat is no longer encouraged. Developing a drug that enhances aggression and determination to fight would have worked wonders in Roman times, Egyptian, even Medieval times.
“What we have seen in our world today is people’s ever increasing fear of things. During the Vietnam Conflict, young draftees felt fearful of death for a lack luster cause. There’s increased use of anti-anxiety medications in our world due to fears of social interaction, panic attacks and everyday worries. Drugs have been created for minor fears, such as an elder man’s fear of not being able to perform sexually anymore. We have fear of terrorism, heightened by 9/11. Fear of nuclear war, losing a loved one, even fear of God.
“It became apparent to the military some time ago that attempting to stimulate the aggressiveness of soldiers was far more difficult than stimulating their fears. For that reason, this research institute has been developing the mother of all biological weaponry. This one agent will put them all to rest. No more Saran, no more Ebola, no more Hanta, no more viral epidemic or pandemic. This agent does it all”, finished Winston.