I do understand. What I'm saying here is out of all the people you know, you personally knew one person. You personally know more people who killed themselves than you know people who were abducted and murdered. If you ask around and are getting roughly the same kinds of answers (and ask all kinds of people, not just people close by), then you would have the idea that probably the risk of suicide is greater than the risk of disappearing and being murdered, and I think that's actually closer to the truth, although I'd have to check statistics to be sure.
I think that human beings are wired to play the odds, it makes sense when you think about it--do I try for food here or there? Do I set up camp in this cave or would the wooded area offer more protection?
The thing is, we need accurate information in order to get a clear picture, and the news isn't really giving us accurate information in the sense of how often it happens.
When we're scared, we're actually less capable of responding to our environment, and that, to me, is the problem. If you're scared, for instance, when you're coming home from work at night, you may be hypervigilant as you walk out to the car and yet not pay attention to that dude at the bar since you're around other people, if you see what I mean. But you've probably got a much better chance of being drugged at a bar than you do of being murdered walking out to your car.
But the biggest issue of all, to me, is that I see people limit themselves because they are afraid, and the thing that's really messed up is that it doesn't seem to do crap other than to make their world more limited.
I think in some ways we get sold this bill of goods that if we are only conservative and careful enough, bad things won't happen to us. And it's simply not true. I could stay here in my house and hide under the computer desk, and there's still no guarantee that something won't happen--maybe there will be a landslide that buries that corner of the house, or lightning will strike and the house will burn down.
So when I weigh out relative risk, personally, I keep that in mind. There's steps you can take to reduce risk, but everything carries a risk, even crossing the street. There are no guarantees. And if I died tomorrow, I lived a very full, very rich life, and for me, at least, that's more valuable than living under my desk until the ripe old age of 102, you know?
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 03:47 am (UTC)I think that human beings are wired to play the odds, it makes sense when you think about it--do I try for food here or there? Do I set up camp in this cave or would the wooded area offer more protection?
The thing is, we need accurate information in order to get a clear picture, and the news isn't really giving us accurate information in the sense of how often it happens.
When we're scared, we're actually less capable of responding to our environment, and that, to me, is the problem. If you're scared, for instance, when you're coming home from work at night, you may be hypervigilant as you walk out to the car and yet not pay attention to that dude at the bar since you're around other people, if you see what I mean. But you've probably got a much better chance of being drugged at a bar than you do of being murdered walking out to your car.
But the biggest issue of all, to me, is that I see people limit themselves because they are afraid, and the thing that's really messed up is that it doesn't seem to do crap other than to make their world more limited.
I think in some ways we get sold this bill of goods that if we are only conservative and careful enough, bad things won't happen to us. And it's simply not true. I could stay here in my house and hide under the computer desk, and there's still no guarantee that something won't happen--maybe there will be a landslide that buries that corner of the house, or lightning will strike and the house will burn down.
So when I weigh out relative risk, personally, I keep that in mind. There's steps you can take to reduce risk, but everything carries a risk, even crossing the street. There are no guarantees. And if I died tomorrow, I lived a very full, very rich life, and for me, at least, that's more valuable than living under my desk until the ripe old age of 102, you know?