Media reporting does much to promote such a fearful set of attitudes.
"They must never be fearful about setting foot on one of our campuses".
Twenty marines were nearby, 11 of them wounded, one already dead, and the other 8 in place, fearful of setting off additional mines if they moved.
Since 1989 it has been particularly fearful of setting a precedent for international action against itself should it stage another bloody crackdown on dissent such as on the Tiananmen Square protests that year.
Fearful of setting a precedent that would open a floodgate of claims, the British government has always insisted that the legal responsibility for actions of the colonial administration lies with its successor; in other words, the government established at independence.
Fearful of setting off an inflationary spiral, the Bank signalled last week that it is in no mood to cut interest rates, despite signs that house prices are falling, unemployment is rising and retail spending is weak.
While such employment assistance is becoming more prevalent, recruiting experts say, many companies are reluctant to talk about the practice, fearful of setting a precedent they will be unable to live up to for every new hire.
Meanwhile, investors have shunned the pharmaceutical industry, fearful that setting pill prices via bureaucratic fiat will hurt its profits.
Two company officers had been wounded and two soldiers were trapped, fearful of setting off more mines.
But "Fearful Symmetries," set to the modular pulse of John Adams's 1988 Minimalist score of the same title, is an exception.
Many of the houses that withstood the quake and the dozens of aftershocks that have followed are too badly cracked to be habitable and their owners too fearful to set foot in them.
