Life's hard...and, you know.

[Salty]

A man of 24 years old was dragged nearly two blocks underneath a car on Arctic and 36th.

A couple was accosted verbally by a man in a red pickup. The man who owned a small fishing company he uses to employ 4 people and support his family got his leg broke, and his wife was crushed so fully she now has a hole in her skull when the red pickup intentionally ran them down.

A 16 year old girl was charged with felony manslaughter for slamming into the car of a 27 year old mother of two.

And then there's the really bad shit that has happened, and probably will happen. I could type it all out. But you know, you don't need another reminder of how awful the world can be to the weakest or the strongest of us.

Now. There seems to be, as others have noted previously, a great disparity between the way people think the world is and the way it actually is.

Example:

Yesterday, after coming within a few feet of an angry momma moose for coming to close to her tiny young, I was told:

"That's why I do not go on the trails."

The beautiful trails. That's why they don't go on them. Because of animals. And, no doubt, animals can fuck you up. There's been many a-bear-mauling in recent years right in my city. Right on the out edges of the city where a bear would have to ninja walk to get there from elsewhere.

I've met bear mauling victims. It isn't pretty.

However, the idea that you have to give up on TREES because other people get mauled by bears or trampled by moose or accosted by alcoholics who live back in those woods basically is just stupid.

You minimize your risks. You take safety precautions. You arm and armor yourself in whatever fashion you're capable of.

You don't give up on walking around trees ever again because of someone else's trauma.

Right?

There are legions of people sitting in their own rotted chemical nightmares, for no reason, or because of perceived danger, or the idea that real danger is going to happen to...wait.

That's kind of closer to the point.

You are in real danger.

If the American government did want to start executing citizens by the truckfull, who exactly would stop them?

If you step into the wrong street you can end up robbed, rapped, killed or worse.

You could conceivably be run over any second near any street. A motherfucking bee could motherfucking sting a little old human and boom. You're not making it to work.

Perhaps it's because many of these people are often superstitious, spiritual, or religious. Or otherwise to not consider the immense vastness and randomness of the physical universe they inhabit. I mean, a god damned space THING nearly smacked right into Russia, like, how many weeks ago?

Maybe people just aren't all designed to think about the greater impact of the world on them, and just follow any pattern they're comfortable with provided it provides succor. And thus, they think because there are dangers they can see, they are unlike the dangers they don't see.

That's just fucked. And maybe why there are so many damned things and people need to feel so safe all the time. They know there are dangers, and in the dark they stumble onto a few, and ultimately assume that if they switch on a light they'll wake up to a world thriving with danger.

They are right. But that's not good enough.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Excellent post. Life is full of horrible things that aren't going to stop being horrible just because people hide. The horrible can still affect people, even if they're hiding and it will hurt more when it does. All hiding from horrible does is keep you from finding things that make the horrible worth it.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

A-fucking-men. I've had talks with the kids about the fact that life is full of risks, and it's just a matter of weighing those risks against the potential rewards. Getting out of bed in the morning isn't safe, but it's fucking worth it.

[Left]

I think I've mentioned the Commute Heuristic...
If what you want to do is no more likely to get you killed than a long drive to work in the handiest big city?  Then you probably ought to do it.

...Funny, I have gone hiking where there is known to be alligator and 4 different species of poisonous snake, as well as feral hogs of possible monster size, and got within 10 feet of a torpid alligator bigger than myself.

It's not them I'm afraid of, they are merely dangerous animals.
People can fucking kill you!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Most of it is superstition.

Follow a prescribed pattern, little human, and you will be Safe.

[Salty]

It's hard to shake those patterns, and I'm not out to force anyone into new one's, but it just seems kinda sad.

Ive seen a lot of bear shit on the trail i take to work every day, but I nearly got flattened by a yellow cab trying to avoid it as well.

I got myself a fancy blue helmet.

[McGrupp]

Giant plastic hamster balls. If those were a thing, I think there are those who would voluntarily get in.

[Reginald Ret]

This may be related to living in cities.
The higher the population density in one's surroundings, the higher the tendency to isolate oneself socially.
No more saying hi to random strangers and all that.
Isolation is bad for social animals, it increases anxiety (among other things).
Leading to... well, the OP.

[Sita]

Giant plastic hamster balls. If those were a thing, I think there are those who would voluntarily get in.

Like these?

[P3nT4gR4m]

This may be related to living in cities.
The higher the population density in one's surroundings, the higher the tendency to isolate oneself socially.
No more saying hi to random strangers and all that.
Isolation is bad for social animals, it increases anxiety (among other things).
Leading to... well, the OP.

I hate cities. They creep me the fuck out. The millisecond I arrive in one my hackles go up. It feels like it's not crowds of people swarming past me, it's things. Creepy, hollow things that look like people but with all the humanity sucked out of them and replaced with clockwork. Their empty, lifeless eyes freak me the fuck out the same way sharks do. I want no part of cities and can't get my head around people who do. 

[McGrupp]

Giant plastic hamster balls. If those were a thing, I think there are those who would voluntarily get in.

Like these?

Yes! We can finally be safe! (make them opaque for the children lest they see boobs, violence, or anything reflecting the real world.)

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Giant plastic hamster balls. If those were a thing, I think there are those who would voluntarily get in.

Like these?

Yes! We can finally be safe! (make them opaque for the children lest they see boobs, violence, or anything reflecting the real world.)

Safe until the hypothetical bear comes at you and then you go rolling off a cliff.

[Triple Zero]

This may be related to living in cities.
The higher the population density in one's surroundings, the higher the tendency to isolate oneself socially.
No more saying hi to random strangers and all that.
Isolation is bad for social animals, it increases anxiety (among other things).
Leading to... well, the OP.

I hate cities. They creep me the fuck out. The millisecond I arrive in one my hackles go up. It feels like it's not crowds of people swarming past me, it's things. Creepy, hollow things that look like people but with all the humanity sucked out of them and replaced with clockwork. Their empty, lifeless eyes freak me the fuck out the same way sharks do. I want no part of cities and can't get my head around people who do. 

Is this true for you for all cities though? I'm asking cause this Saturday I went to meet up with Cram Sjaako Regret and a bunch of others in Amsterdam, and the Sunday I took the US-people to Utrecht. The effect those two cities had on my mind was very different. In Amsterdam you're basically avoiding tourists (even if you are a tourist yourself) and the whole super busy swarms of people just exerting a sort of ... general pressure. Then we were in Utrecht and I was like, ok let's just wander around and have a good time. Also the streets weren't nearly as crowded. Much better. Then again it probably helps I know my way around there better (though don't ask me for directions, or anything).

On a different note, somewhat related to this thread, but not as much with life-and-death danger situations: I realized a while ago, if you think you must hide yourself from danger/stress, better first figure out really well if you're not going to have just as much stress sitting inside anyway. Maybe from different sources, but it doesn't really work "linearly", at some point (or perhaps for reasons unconnected to one's environment) stress/danger is just a constant, in which case, going out is a LOT more fun, if it just changes the type of danger, not the frequency of it.

[McGrupp]

Giant plastic hamster balls. If those were a thing, I think there are those who would voluntarily get in.

Like these?

Yes! We can finally be safe! (make them opaque for the children lest they see boobs, violence, or anything reflecting the real world.)

Safe until the hypothetical bear comes at you and then you go rolling off a cliff.

Good god, man! We won't have the plastic hamster balls outside! It's dangerous out there. They will only be employed inside buildings which themselves will be surrounded by a giant plastic hamster ball. Bears, moose, pumas, coyotes, badgers, and certain types of aggressive mongoose will also be encased in plastic hamster balls.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I would actually pay to see that.

But clearly that's not the point of the hamster balls. We have to make the world perfectly spherical so no one falls off of anything. And make them buoyant in case someone gets knocked into the water.