My personal pet peeve is when people say things like "we live in a dangerous world now". No, we don't. At least, not more dangerous than before (which is the implication). We might be breathlessly focused on some dangers, but those dangers are LESS than before, not more.
I don't want anyone to suffer, and definitely don't want anyone to die. I'm not calling for turning our backs on every idea to improve safety. Just don't apply this safety under the false premise that things are more dangerous than they were.
If you’re surrounded by dangers, you literally have to ignore some of them while you fight off the others. There is no way to fight every problem at once.
No, it's part of human nature to be concerned about threats to ourselves above almost everything else. It's not only natural, but it's probably not possible to fully turn off this tendency.
Claiming that people should automatically be as concerned about being a danger to others as they are about danger to themselves is a nice thought... the world would be a good place if that was the way things worked... but it's not. Even the most educated and enlightened people put their own safety first and the threat to others second, because we're all human.
Agree, but it's just the human nature -- we want to know about all dangers and take preventive actions. One example is news -- almost all news are about some dangers, because media companies know well what their audience pays for.
In nowadays world there a too few dangers, so we exaggerate what we have, and imagine dangers we don't have.
The question is what should we do about this, and should we?
I make this type of argument pretty often and it is more to counteract the psychological impact of terrorism than anything else. We should feel that our safety is in jeopardy only relative to the likelihood of a given threat. Any more so only empowers the the people who are threatening us.
We can be more vigilant to start with and for that mindset needs to change.
I remember as a child I used to follow the security instructions like looking under the seat while riding a bus.My friends and people around me used to laugh on my cautiousness.
Similarly while driving if you try to stay in my lane and follow the
rules and precaution, often friend and family members laugh at me for this extra cautiousness.
In India "what is destined will happen eventually" attitude is prevalent and that needs a change.
This misguided notion that the public can't handle the danger also applies to other things like terrorism. With the right mindset I think people could learn to live with the occasional plane being blown out of the sky. Life was far more dangerous 100 years ago & as our creature comforts have increased we have have forgotten how to live with danger day-to-day.
We live our lives. Danger will always be present. I could be hit by a car crossing the street from my office to the parking lot. I could be shot in the grocery store near my house.
Sometimes, there is nothing more that you can do. Accept the risk and move on.
That's the vast majority of the problem, to be specific, as that perception is far out of proportion to the actual risk. So address the fearmongering and contextualize how rare these incidents are, insteading of blaming gun owners and further eroding civil liberties.
reply