Does this frighten you?

Yes, there are a few things that frighten me: bees, electricity, dangers to my personal physical well-being. That may not be all, but most other stuff doesn't faze me. I can remember, years agone, one of the times I was in London, coming in the midst of my wanderings to a small cobblestoned alley. It took a bit, but finally my companion convinced me it was not quaint and exotic, but dark, dank and smelly. My romantic side gave in to my practical side, and we missed out on what might have been a marvelous adventure. (Or maybe a mugging.)
No, there is nothing wrong with fear; we are born with it as a primal survival instinct. If it weren't for such human reactions, we would take all kinds of risks. But wait, don't we risk such things regularly: roller-coasters, scary movies, dating? Maybe we want the frightening things to be really under our control; the roller coaster ride ends, as does the movie. The dating, well, okay, bad example, but even there we can know it can  end.
It is the other things we get scared of, the things which seem out of our hands, the things that media and other authority figures push at us and yell BOO! People who are from certain ethnic backgrounds or have a different skin color or speak a different language. People who have been labelled; the mentally ill, the handicapped, those with a particular sexual orientation. It seems to not be enough to feel superior to such people. Now we must make them into our modern culture's version of ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night.
One could almost excuse some media for their scare tactics ("Is there a child molester living next door to you? Details at 11!") because it makes people tune in, even if there's nothing to be scared about. But we seem to be living in a society that seeks out the ghost story, that accepts the frightening innuendo at one gulp, unable to be reassured that there is not, in fact, a monster under the bed.
We might try to laugh at our fears, whistle past the graveyard, scoff at someone else's  superstitious precautions. But ultimately we are stuck sorting out the fake fears from the real. Yes, as I said above, there may be authentic things we should protect ourselves from. But that dark shape on the floor at night proves to be shoes in the light of day. That person with the different clothing and headgear proves to be delightful and well-spoken. And  walking down that alley proves to be mundane with people's laundry overhead and children running up and down as mothers call them to come for tea.