In his marvelous La peur en Occident, Jean Delumeau reports how, when faced with the threat of plague, a late medieval community reacted in six steps which followed one another with an inexorable necessity: first, they went on as if there is no disease; then, they explained away each case as pertaining to another, more harmless, disease; then, they conceded that there is a disease, but limited and under control; then, the paranoia erupted, people avoided contacts; then, there was the outburst of religious fervor, the attempt to read the disease as a divine punishment and do some kind of penance for it; then, people passed to the “What the hell!” attitude, engaging in the wild feasts of drinking, eating, and sexual orgies; finally, although the disease was still ravaging, people again tried to lead their lives as normal... Is it not reasonable to expect that our reactions to Mad Cow Disease will follow a similar succession: first, an outright denial; then, claims that it is a li­mited disease fully under control; then, the outright paranoia (BSE can be everywhere, in milk, in pork and chicken, in cows which were already tested); then, the New Age religious attitude of reading BSE as a phenomenon with a “deeper meaning” (the punishment for our ruthless manipulation of animals); then, a “What the hell!” attitude; and, finally, a kind of return to normal—who knows what is really going on, so let us just continue to live like before?