Fear, Sex, and Pandemic, Part 4

by Carol Dunn · 2009-07-18 14:24:00 UTC
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(photo credit: Elaphurus)

When we stay focused on risk, we stop focusing on living.  If we all do that, species wide, we would never have started wandering, we wouldn't interact, trade with or fall in love with people from other tribes, we wouldn't be in a state of constant migration, over ice bridges, under fences-we would have isolated ourselves and most likely failed as a species.

So, hurray, we live better when we don't worry about risk! ....Or do we? Admit it, if you are like most people you nodded your head at the thought that life is better if you don't worry too much about risk.  What will be will be-of course you do, that's what I've been saying, we are all inclined to feel that way.  But in reality, on a personal level.

All over the world people are inclined to ignore thinking about future risks, how this plays out varies around the world, clearly influenced by environment, culture, age, spirituality, opinions, etc.   Some regions and cultures feel that it is inappropriate to take steps to reduce risks, since it shows a lack of faith that things will be OK, vs. others that are more accepting towards the idea of identifying what can go wrong and fixing it before it does.

Turns out that if you reduce the number of bad things that will happen, you increase the number of good things. Regions of the world that adopted safety education programs decreased the number of ‘unintended injury childhood fatalities'  by 50% in less than 30 years.

Pandemic flu preparedness advocates want to increase the number of good things that happen around the world, by showing that it is possible to avoid the really bad thing that is pandemic flu. They blew it though.

Carol Dunn
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