Can you smell the fear?

Hunters and soldiers have long spoken of experiencing firsthand the smell of fear. It's a scent as different from plain old hard-work perspiration as a gardenia is from garbage. The smell of fear has always been associated with panic, desperation, anxiety, fight, flight, and fright. Since September 11, 2001, however, the smell of fear has taken on a new aroma a distinctive scent known by a host of new entrepreneurs as the smell of money.

The Business of Fear (Business 2.0 [June 2003] 106ff) has become a big, lucrative business. The fear business or antiterrorism industry has already grown into a 100 billion dollar a year enterprise. Anyone who can think up a gadget to hang on to one of the new terrors that haunt our dreams can take their idea to the bank. It's the…