They (the mythical people used for unscrupulous referencing purposes) say that time away makes you notice the differences... err.... between your country and others... or something like that. Anyway, upon my return to the country of sunburn I couldn’t help but notice a peculiar element to my own society; the perception that everything should have a safety net and, in general, the removal of responsibility for the individual.
The comparatively orderly freeways were the first thing to leap out at me. As a driver you really don’t have that much to do, especially if you’re on cruise control and there’s not much traffic. Furthermore, we have advertisements telling us that, should we creep over the speed limit in our boredom induced state, it will be ok. Why? Because the police will catch us before anyone gets hurt.
Whilst I don’t want to condone breaking the law, the lack of need for a driver to judge what is a suitable speed seems to be indicative of our soft edge society which seems to take away the need for an individual to possess sound judgement. Think of alcohol and gambling. For some reason it is the vendor’s responsibility to decide how much money you want to give them. Imagine if they had this sort of arrangement in clothes shops or car yards. “I’m sorry sir, you can’t take out a loan to buy this car because it depreciates too much and you will lose most of your money.” Or, “Excuse me but you’re not allowed to buy this shirt because it really is quite horrific and you may be subject to psychological hardship because of it.” Granted alcohol and gambling are branded as addictive, whereas pouring your hard earned down other drains for equally benign reasons is regarded as stimulating the economy. But shouldn’t people who are supposedly sound of mind enough to vote be able to judge what to make of themselves regardless of the effects, let alone the country.
Speaking of mind issues, I’ve concocted a theory that this deferral of responsibility away from the individual could actually be bad for them. Maybe you are more likely to do stupid things if, in the back of your mind, you’re thinking that there will always be safety cameras to stop you crashing, or night shift medical staff to pump your stomach. I heard in a documentary once that people would drive a lot safer if they had a big spike sticking out of the steering wheel in lieu of an airbag. People would be much more aware of the risks they were taking.
I also think that risk taking has gotten a bad name when it shouldn’t have. People take risks all the time but they prefer not to think about them like that. Like crossing the road; people just want to think that the man is green which means that nothing can happen to them. But this isn’t the reality. Deciding what risks to take is an essential part of being an adult, pretending they don’t exist is called being a child. So, the more decision making and consequences taken away from individuals, perhaps the more infantile they become.
Skip to the end: A minor rant about individual's responsibilities that may lean towards anarchism.
