Letter from the Editor: October 2017

When I was little, my fears were relatively concrete. I used to have nightmares about the abominable snowman, the fluffy white one from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

At 21 years old, I’m past the stage of my life where I lose sleep over a puppet, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still plenty of things that scare me in the world. I worry about loss of fundamental human rights, especially for minority groups; spiders climbing out of the shower drain; climate change; being alone; wealth disparity; horror movie trailers, let alone the movies; and nuclear war, just to name a few.

In some cases, we fear because of a previous bad experience. In others, we’re afraid because we’ve been warned of that thing by another person. And sometimes, we simply fear things that we don’t understand.

Today, more than ever, there’s a lot to fear. And it’s October, the quintessentially scary season! What better to base our inaugural issue of the 2017-2018 BYU Political Review around than the simple idea of fear?

In this issue we’ll explore facets of fear like what to do when you’re afraid to speak out, the scary ideas that keep Kim Jong-un up at night, and why this year’s horrific hurricane season should make you worried about the future of food.

As always, we welcome feedback and submissions from readers. Feel free to email your thoughts to byupoliticalreview@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter @byupolitics, like us on Facebook @BYUPR, and view our articles on the web at politicalreview.byu.edu.

Finally, welcome! It’s lovely to have you along.

Sage Smiley

Editor-in-Chief