And so there I was in a lecture. I was not going to say anything, I was going to sit there like a good little boy and keep my mouth shut. It was time to go and he just wanted to know if anyone had anything else to say. . . .so what did I go and do . . . yeah I went and lit a fire under everyone’s arse.
We were talking about risk, how it is perceived and the structures we have in place to deal with it. Everyone was making perfectly good points about how the government is set up and that there are agencies for this and departments for that, the lecture was at an end. . but I still had something to say.
What if. . I said. . what if we took away all these safe guards that have been protecting us everyday. How would we cope. What if the only person who was there to look after you was yourself, would we manage? Crashing your car is a risk but if we disbanded the emergency services would this not make people drive with a lot more care, thus reducing the risk. What if there was no health care system, would people still smoke, get blind drunk, take part in dangerous sports. People expect to take chances and lose. We rely on the emergency services to get us out of trouble that we get ourselves into by choice. The speed limit is just that, a limit, not a target. Do we have to see how fast we can travel on county B roads? Do we have to take part in activities that we know could cause us harm? The answer obviously is no, but we choose to because we have these safety nets to fall back on.
People no longer accept responsibility for their actions. We are always blaming the government for harm that befalls us. Do I have sympathy for the people on the telly who are dying because they have been smoking. . errr . . no, read the packet, talk to your doctor, open a paper, turn on the telly, open your eyes. Smoking kills, you wanna smoke, fine, but don’t complain if you die because of it. It was your choice.
“Accident Blackspots� are not caused by road design, they are caused by drivers not taking due care and attention. The road does not suddenly move, the markings do not change on a daily basis and unfortunately the drivers do not get any smarter.
Accident happen, yes, people get ill, yes, but can it still be called an accident when the person involved is aware they are putting themselves in harms way?
Now I’m not sat here saying I’m perfect. I do a lot of dumb stuff, and I too rely on the emergency services, and I know that disbanding them would be a really bad idea. All I was trying to do was get people to think about the ownership of risk. Why can’t we take responsibility for ourselves anymore? It is because we have lost our capacity to cope with even the slightest of mishaps. Look back to the war, when peoples houses were getting bombed they just got on with their lives. They helped each other out, pulled together and did the best they could. We act like we are in the middle of a catastrophe today if our oven breaks down at the same time as the telly.
To round up, this was all brought about because as I look around I can see that society is becoming weak. Us young ‘ens have had it easy, we have always had everything we needed and now with the chance of being compensated for every accident we are involved in, the world is a pretty cosy place. We don’t need to be scared of risk anymore because we get picked up, brushed off and then a cheque arrives in the post. We have lost our resilience, our coping capacity and our sense of responsibility. Maybe when we get these back we can start to accept that the world isn’t a perfect place but it’s the only one we’ve got, and that when the shit hits the fan you just have to get on with life.
Whooo, pretty heavy for this blog methinks. But there you are. I got shouted down by a lecture room full of people on that one but hey, it was never going to be popular was it.
