Paranoia (and stupid people) abound

Looking down from my window I can see them now. I didn't before I went down for a much needed smoke break.
I've spend all morning arguing with someone over in the UK about a shipment and customs fees. I was so wrapped up in it all I didn't send my sympathies for yet another stressful day over there. Besides what do you say. We interrupt this business related tirade to offer milk-toast sympathies for something that didn't probably effect you personally
So I am frustrated and I have neglected all the other work piling up around me. What's another 5 min for a cigarette?
The oppressiveness of the on coming thunderstorm (that will undoubtedly miss us and our desperately thirsty ground) smacks me in the face and hugs my body as I step outside where it is muggy and loud.
I can barely hear the click of the zippo. I look down the street. I'm use to the occasional noise, being in a large metropolitan area across the street from the firehouse, but this is deafening. And who are all those people?
I walk down to the corner of the building: Ambulance, fire truck, rescue vehicle, 8 cop cars, lots of yellow tape. From the Fire house all around the park next to it. Maybe it's an accident at the corner. Nope traffic is still going around the corner, just not down this street. Maybe they are filming. It would explain all the people standing around watching, they do that a-lot here. But I just don't see anything, and while I could postulate all day I've almost finished my cigarette and only brought the one down.
A little calmer now I head back in to the cool building and say hi to the security guard. He likes to chit-chat and today he informs me the commotion is all about an unidentified package that was found. I feel slightly colder for a brief moment, thinking how I had wandered towards that direction, but it passes as my rationality (or denial) always tells me it was just a mislaid box or bag.
I return to my desk thinking about how all those people down there are stupid. Assuming, of course, that they knew what was going on. What was it that transfixed them? Why would they put themselves in harms way? Did they want to die? Or did they just want to be there, to be the ones screaming "Oh-My-GOD" when the: Car, truck, fireman / cop, or package went Ka-Boom. The ones wandering around in shock that camera crews could interview "I was just on my way to... when I hear this loud bang and see debris flying everywhere. We all started running for our lives (once we saw the film crew)" Movement always makes for better footage.

I get back on the phone with my problem in the UK. We're both a little cooler. While he is pulling up data I tell him about the unidentified package. He jokes that maybe that's where the shipment is. We both laugh a little and then start talking about London, this morning, and the paranoia of people. Not irrational fear. There are reasons to be afraid. But somehow it does seem to make people a little stupider. Neither of us know why. But we have reassured each other that we are not alone. That we are all aware of what is going on, and that we have support all over the world.
And we managed to find the shipment