From our vantage point it is now clear that the only thing the population had to fear was fear itself.
I like the concept of teenagers and philosophy.
our questions, but the need to do this 
I write with teenagers in mind. 
The only thing binding individuals together is ideas. Ideas mutate and spread; they change their hosts as much as their hosts change them. 
The mind is not a machine, it is an idea. And the Idea resists all attempts to control it. 
But time passes. Fear becomes a memory. Terror becomes routine; it loses its grip. 
Sometimes, even the very best course of action fails. 
Consciousness is the feel of accessing memory. 
Are you saying a society wracked by plague is preferable to one wracked by indifference? 
I try not to be surprised. Surprise is the public face of a mind that has been closed. 