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Re: [OM] Be afraid, be very afraid! FEAR!!!

Subject: Re: [OM] Be afraid, be very afraid! FEAR!!!
From: Charles Geilfuss <charles.geilfuss@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 17:04:15 -0500
  I couldn't agree more Moose and I had a similar childhood as well in the
early 60's. From the age of 10 I rode my bike to school (no helmet) across
most of the downtown peninsula and by 12 had an evening paper route that
kept me out on my bike til well after dark during the winter. On saturdays
when I did my collections I went into all manner of homes ranging from
near-mansions on Colonial Lake to public housing behind the old City Jail. I
was even a Catholic alter server for eight years...and absolutely nothing
happened; well a few people didn't pay me for their papers but that doesn't
count. I blame the wide spread fear today on the 24/7 "news" beast and
Lifetime Network movies (either the kid is kidnapped or the wife is murdered
over and over). I seem to remember reading some time back that child
abduction by a family member has shown an increase but that kidnapping by
strangers has remained constant for many decades.

Charlie

On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 3:42 PM, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 1/6/2011 5:31 AM, Brian Swale wrote:
> > My opinion is totally opposite !! :-)
> >
> > If I see raw juices flowing from meat, I refuse to eat it since it
> obviously hasn't been cooked enough to kill whatever living hazard might be
> in there.
>
> We each get to choose our own balance between living life fully and
> enjoyably and the risks entailed by doing so.
>
> Fortunately, where I live, government has found a balance. Restaurants must
> cook meats to certain minimum degrees of
> doneness - unless the patron specifically asks for something else. If you
> just ordered a hamburger, you'd get well done.
> But I can still order medium rare, and have beef I find at least palatable,
> usually enjoyable. I assume some fast food
> places just don't give the option, preferring safety (theirs, not yours) to
> flavor. Perhaps they assume that anyone
> eating there has already invalidated any assumption that they are capable
> of seeing to their own safety. ;-)
>
> Our 'Western' culture has become irrationally fear based, working hard to
> avoid risks that are minimal in probability
> and/or seriousness of consequences.
>
> Simple reality check; compare your experience of daily life with what you
> see and hear on the news.
>
> Simple example: I read somewhere fairly recently about someone who tried to
> compare rates of child abduction recently
> vs. historical. They concluded that a good comparison wasn't possible; much
> was swept under the rug and otherwise under
> reported back when I was a kid. Their best guess, based on a lot of
> research, was that rates are probably roughly
> comparable.
>
> What's different now is aggressive reporting that fans fears. When I was a
> kid "at risk", we all ran free from coming
> home from school to dinnertime and most of the summer. I never heard of any
> kid I knew or knew of being abducted. Was
> one or more? I don't know for sure, but doubt it.
>
> Now, parents hold their children so tightly that it's hard for them to have
> what I would call a happy, healthy
> childhood. Hard for the parents to have a happy, healthy adulthood, too.
>
> I'm not advocating anything specific here, only suggesting that public
> perceptions and actual risks may vary a lot. Life
> is inherently risky, suffering and death are givens. You can try to avoid
> all risks. Doing so will just expose you to
> others* - and you will die anyway. Remember the boy in the bubble.
>
> Moose
>
> * Depression, madness, eating tofu, terminal boredom, diseases no one ever
> heard of until we all became so fearful, and
> so on. :-)
> --
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>
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