I first classified all of the responses into two categories: personal fears and global fears. Personal fears included fear of dying, of being alone, of not succeeding in life, of not finding love, of losing a loved one, etc. Both sides shared most of the personal fears.

The global fears were represented more strongly on the French side, including several mentions of la guerre, l'extremisme, les attentats, les racailles, la maladie, and Ussama Ben Laden. It showed the French are much more concerned about the dangers the world community faces. The Americans only included corporate domination, xenophobic rednecks with assault rifles, and Bush getting reelected. Those were isolated comments, so I concluded Americans are much more worried about themselves than about the community. This reinforces the idea we've mentioned before that Americans think often as individuals, and the French often as a community.

Alejandro - agreed; the Americans and the French shared a similar set of personal fears, but the French were much more likely to include concerns outside of themselves. This does reinforce what we have been talking about in regards to the conception of the individual v. society.

When I was responding to this question, my first thought was actually the death of my boyfriend in a terrorist attack. (He worked in the center of London in a government office this summer right next to parliament and that always bothered me a bit). But then I rejected that because I didn't want to have my fears be from the outside, beyond my control - I don't want terrorism to be a source of fear in my life. I think this is for two reasons - first, it is outside my control. But second, it almost trivializes my fears - saying that terrorists or Bush have such a large influence on my fears and the meaning of my life seems to me to be a cop-out. It is not my challenge to replace Bush, but it is my challenge to take my life down the correct path. So, I replaced "terrorists" and the like with fears that are closer to me.

It seems that this could definitely reflect the concept of individualism: I felt that the only source of meaning for my fears could be derived from myself, and I also felt that I wanted to have some control over them - the greatest challenges and greatest rewards come from within myself, and they are the largest source of fear.

Perhaps the individualism=egoism characterization is correct?

Que ce soient les américains ou Les français, nous pensons davantage à notre avenir professionnel, nous avons peur de ne pas réussir. La seconde plus grande peur est en rapport avec notre vie sentimentale : perdre l'amour de sa vie ou ne pas le trouver. Nous pensons également à la famille, le fait de perdre un proche à cause de certaines maladies par exemple. La santé occupe une place importante pour tous. De nombreux termes reviennent également comme la guerre et plus particulièrement pour les français. Nos peurs sont donc similaires d'un pays à un autre, le seule différence est peut être pour les français en pensant davantage à la guerre, pourquoi ?

Personnellement, je pense que le monde d'aujourd'hui est dans une situation de tension permanente. Les gens s'entretuent et les erreurs du passé ne sont pas retenues. La religion est censée être le symbole d'une paix intérieure et spirituelle et au lieu de cela elle fait partie de la violence. Pour moi la religion doit amener à un bien être, une paix intérieure. Les discriminations s'accentuent et les fossés se creusent entre les différentes communautés. Voici le monde d'aujourd'hui.

Je m'appelle Adil Barakat et je suis musulman pratiquant. Je suis originaire du Maroc où vient une grande partie des terroristes internationaux. Ma plus grande crainte est qu'on fasse l'amalgame. J'ai peur qu'on voit tous les musulmans comme des terroristes potentiels et l'Islam comme une religion dangereuse. Aujourd'hui, les gens disent que l'Islam est contre la démocratie. Bien sur, c'est faux. Nous avons étudié et traduit les textes grecs qui défendaient la démocratie bien avant la mise en place des démocraties dans les pays occidentaux. J'ai peur qu'on voit mes soeurs musulmanes comme des êtres inférieurs car elles portent le voile. Bien sur, c'est faux. Ici, dans ma propre école, un certain nombre d'étudiant (pas beaucoups, heureusement!!!) font l'amalgame. Je ne serais un bon français que le jour où je m'appelerai "Jean-Eduard" et que je serais un bon chrétien. Chez vous, est-ce que vous laissez entrer les arabes en boite de nuit ? Car, ici,les arabes n'ont pas
le droit de danser. Ca peut paraître drôle mais c'est la vérité! J'espère que de votre coté, vous êtes plus intelligent et tolérant.

Bonjour à tous ! je pense que nous nous sommes tous exprimés de manière trés globale dans les réponses (je suis d'accord avec Ale). Je crois également que les deux cotês de l'atltantique, les étudiants se sont exprimés sur ces peurs les plus bannales.

Mais si je reviens sur ce qu'on a écris avant moi sur le forum, je trouve qu'ils on été beaucoup plus sincères et touchants.

Bravo de ne pas avoir peur des choses bannales et d'apprendre à dissocier nos vrais peurs, des ces peurs que veulent nous vendre les medias.

je pense d'aprés de ce que je viens de lire ,que les grandes craintes sont la mort ,la perte de quelqu'un qu'on l'aime beucoup ,une frande peur de l'avenir et de ce qui nous cache. la crainte est une chose tres normale ,nous sommes tous des etres humains ,nous avons un coeur et des sentiments. on a vu dans l'histoire que les grandes personnalités qui ont laissés des traces apres leur disparition comme le seigneur JESUS christ a eu peur de la mort le moment ou il a été crucifié par les juifs. de ce qu'il vient nous dire mon collègue ADIL est tres normal,et je le comprend bien car nous vivons une periode tres difficile surtout au niveau de la guerre contre les musulmans et les sortes de discriminations qui apparaissent quasement dans tout le monde.

After thinking about it more, I think another reason the French are so scared of war and we are not is that the French had to endure relatively recently the two world wars, while there hasn't been a war fought on US soil since the civil war, back in 1865! In other words, the Americans don't remember how much it sucks to have a war in your homeland.

With respect to the Muslims, I don't think they are lesser human beings. But I do fear a few of them, as much as I fear those crazy Christian sects that we have in the US. Althought I haven't read it myself, based on what I've heard, I think the problem with the Coran is that it can be interpreted in many different ways, just like the Bible is interpreted in different ways for each Christian sect there is. So one interpretation might say "make peace with the world", and I actually believe most Muslims are peaceful, but then another interpretation says "kill the infidels" and that's where terrorists come from. So from my point of view there's at least two types of Muslims, and most of the world refuses to acknowledge this and just classifies everybody as evildoers. Both kinds of Muslims are as different as they can get.

I think that I found that more MIT students had failure as one of their greatest fears. I agree with other people who noted that MIT students tended to list more personal fears, compared to the French students who had a combination of personal fears and fears that were more global (fear of war, the future of France, etc.). Both sides indicated fears of sickness for themselves or loved ones.

For me personally, I think my greatest fears tend to be related to things I feel I could do something about. Reading through the two lists, it seems that many of the MIT responses could fall into this category also. The French responses are often things outside one's control.

It is strange that Americans did not put "war" under there fears column. I believe that Americans are afraid of war, in the sense of war being an attack on our country. A question for the French students, why do you fear war? What aspect of war do you fear? Do you fear war because it means that your homeland will be attacked and your loved ones may die? Or do you fear the general idea of war because it shows the horrid evilness of human nature? I think most people will be motivated by personal reasons.

Some may accuse me of spreading "liberal propoganda," but if Americans do not fear war, in the sense of an attack on the country, then why is Bush so popular? Even after it is made publicly known that Iraq was not a threat to the U.S., Bush's popularity ratings remain high. I hypothesize this is because Americans fear an attack on their country.

So, perhaps it is not that the Americans and French have different concerns or fears, but that our mutual fears are manifested in different actions. Americans believe they need to fight wars in order to prevent an attack on our home. The French see pacifism as the way to protect their home. Thoughts?