Quote:
Originally Posted by MS Fowler
I am coming to grips with the reality that the country has changed. Freedom and liberty are no longer valued by the great mass of the populace. Security, safety, and having others provide for their needs ( wants/ demands) are the current desires.
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Sadly, I think we've been moving in that direction for at least a couple decades now.
Even though Bot's statistics point out that homicides are at quite a low level now historically, the 24/7 news cycle sensationalizes every occurrence such that it appears to the average person that the world outside their front door has turned into a free for all killing zone.
Add to that your observation, that today's populace believes their lives should be a guaranteed "zero risk" existence from cradle to grave, in every aspect.
Back in the 90's, John Stossel (with ABC at the time) hosted a program called "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death", covering many topics in our society that were cause celebs, from the environment to the current topic.
He presented the following hypothetical to the panel of guests, representing a cross-section of groups and society at the time - "I have a new fuel I want to put on the market. It's clean burning, we already have the technology and infrastructure in place to handle it, it's relatively cheap, and this country already has an abundance of it - that could drastically reduce our dependence on foreign oil and help our economy. The downside is it's highly flammable, colorless and odorless, and on average you could expect 100 people per year to be killed from mistakes and accidents occurring while using it."
"My question to you is, do the benefits this fuel would give to the country as a whole outweigh the potential accidents and cost of human life? How many say NO, that 100 lives is too high a price to pay?"
Nearly every member of the panel held up their hands.
"How about if we could reduce that to 10 lives, how many still say NO?"
This time about 2/3 of the panel held up their hands.
"How about if we could reduce that to just one person, how many would still say NO, that even one life is still too high a price to pay for the benefits our country would receive from this fuel?"
About a 1/3 of the panel still held up their hands.
Mr Stossel then explained, "In that case, you had best call your utility and tell them to shut off you gas service, becasuse you believe it's too dangerous to use - because that's exactly the fuel I've been describing, and the numbers of deaths that occur each year from it's use - natural gas."