"Time and time again, we see evidence that our fears are inordinately disproportionate to the actual risks. Other research we have conducted indicates that the public assesses risk in a hierarchical fashion. Situations in which the victim has no control -- such as a home invasion, a child being kidnapped -- invoke greater fear than, say, rising crime in an adjacent neighbourhood, an exposure you can choose to avoid. Threats that are invisible are considered more hazardous than those that can be seen. ." Macleans Magazine
As the fear concerning SARS rises in Canada, we are starting to get excited about West Nile Virus - the Mosquito season is only weeks away here on PEI. We are being told that we must all stay indoors all the time, wear DEET and spray the water with insecticide. If we don't maybe 10 people may die! The annual number of deaths on PEI is about 1,200. So we are being told to put our life on hold and to fill our world with insecticide to reduce a marginal risk that may kill some elderly people - isn't this a bit weird?
Why are we so paranoid about risks that are so small when compared with real risks? 45,000 - 55,000 die on America's roads each year and yet we do not stop driving. Florida and California risk over using their water but this has not stopped development or intensive agriculture.
I see this hysterical fear most in the actions of parents today. As parents, we control our children as we never were. (funny short article on this).controlled ourselves. Obsessed with the idea of abuse and kidnap, we shut our children in. As a small boy I lived in Ghana. My sister and I ran wild, swam in shark filled surf, killed cobras and rabid dogs. We ate all sorts of stuff. Before Ghana we lived in London in the early 1950's. The next door house was a bomb-site from the war and we played endlessly among the ruins and roamed the streets of our neighbourhood all day. I was between 4 and 8 at the time. Throughout my teens, I and most of my contemporaries did all the wrong things: shot at each other with air-rifles, made bombs etc. and we all survived. The real risks began when we started driving cars, or joined the army, where real risks occur and when several of my close friends were killed.
But today I see many parents refuse to allow any act of adventure or independent action. So instead of finding real adventure in the company of friends, our children act out fake adventure, alone, on the computer. What does this withholding of adventure and fellowship mean for their development?
Many of our fears are related to a fear of infection. Hence the rise in the use of antibacterial soap. I think that this too is part of our paranoia. Are we not compromising the immune system of our children? On the other hand, we are happy to keep our children indoors and inactive and to feed them junk thus creating the real risk of obesity.
We seem prepared to halt our economy, Toronto is paralysed right now as is Hong Kong, to avoid the risk of infection. One potential visitor to Toronto as she cancelled her tickets and trip told the agent that she feared that the theatre was close to the Scarborough hospital. It is actually 25 miles away.
Finally why are we so afraid of death itself? I think that we have an unreasonable fear of death today. One of my responses to the war in Iraq is surprise when I hear of parents of professional and volunteer soldiers who are killed reacting as if this was not a possibility that they had considered when their child made the choice to join the military. I am not being hard hearted here but as one who lost 3 friends in action the 1970's I miss them terribly but acknowledge that they were doing what they loved to do.
I get the sense that we fear death so much today that we fear to live.
10:13:47 AM 
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