This makes me think of kids who have to wear bike helmets and elbow pads and knee pads just to ride a bicycle, when as a kid I rode my bike down big hills with no hands (and no helmet or pads) and not only loved the feeling of freedom that it gave me, but survived it over and over again, to boot.

Seems to me parents and religious folks, for instance, spend a lot of time worrying about outside dangers and threats to the point where they want to have laws made to protect themselves, their children and/or religious values to the detriment of others' freedom.

I'd rather see them inform themselves and their children in an intelligent way about the dangers they perceive, than to have them influence their local or state politicians to write yet another new restricting law that makes a few people feel safer while the majority loses their freedom.

Thanks for this post. Very though provoking, as your entire series has been.

I'm having to think here, C. Are we afraid of the risks of living? Or are we just afraid, period?

As much as we deal with it rather poorly, we'll all die. Some don't do too well along lifes road and others just saunter through it nonchalantly.

Unless we change in some very basic ways none of this will ever change. For starters, individual peoples connection with the natural world has grown tenuous at best. I was speaking with a sixteen year old a couple of weeks ago and somehow the conversation got around to escaping from a bear. The teen said with certainty to just run away. This very clearly informs us that human knowledge is a very random thing.

And then there is science.

Ray Kurzweil, celebrated futurist, recently penned an article predicting that in the not too distant future technology will permit extending human life well beyond what is the current norm. There is good basis for his argument. He predicts that even before mid century, science in general will have changed our world dramatically.

I think much of this will be taken for granted and go generally unnoticed by the majority. The upshot of this is, in the event of a global calamity, our ability to cope will be severely impaired. Most people will perish for the lack of common sense knowledge or an inability to assemble factual information into any logical order. We see this reflected already in much of the discussion that goes on right here. Where individuals possessed of the exact same facts arrive at absolutely opposite conclusions will remain a puzzling feature of human mental capability.

This inexplicable anomaly is and will remain an impediment to progress. One thing I have noticed about people in this regard is some inject into the equation the factor of human interaction even though it is not a factor at all. I cannot count the number of times I have expressed to someone fact based ideas only to have a response that is totally about this interaction and not at all about the evaluation of the data. And it is amazing to see in the face of the other person their bewilderment as to why I am left speechless with their response. It makes for some awkward moments. Unfortunately, sometimes I just can't help myself and I laugh. Not good.

Good post, C.

We need to all be more tolerant of others and their chosen life styles and realize that we ourselves are responsible for our own life.

With respect to responsibility, it seems people are innately resourceful. For some, it remains dormant until called upon by necessity.