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Don't run with scissors - replay

Life is filled with dangers.

Back in 2006 I write a column titled Don't run with scissors in which I lamented the loss of freedoms that a fanatic obsession with safety had brought upon us.

I was interested therefore to read this Wired story with a similar theme -- albeit published almost eight years to the day after my original piece on the subject.

What I found very interesting in the Wired story was the revelation that someone had raised US$150K in a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign -- simply to produce a run of those good old-fashioned chemistry sets that got so many young geeks of my age excited about science.

This highlights several things...

Firstly, just about any good idea can attract huge amounts of funding if it's packaged and presented effectively through a crowd-funding site.

Secondly, there are clearly many folks, like myself, who seem to believe that when it comes to *forcing* safety on others, our overlords may have already gone a little too far.

The perfect proof of this is the mention of a chemistry set sold in the mid 1990s which proudly proclaimed that it contained no chemicals. What the?

One of the downsides of cosseting the public in cotton wool and keeping any sharp objects out of their reach is that we are increasingly losing respect for danger and looking to blame others for our bad choices.

How on earth can we continue to evolve as a species if even the unfittest are protected from the outcomes of their bad decisions by the state-mandated "nerfworld" in which we must live?

Of course I have typed that with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek -- but seriously, one of the life-skills we must impart on our children is one of being able to reasonably assess risk and make decision based on the effect that risk may have on the outcome.

I believe that the present strategy of simply removing all risk is not a healthy one at all.

You can tell a child that touching a hot stove will cause them pain a thousand times -- but how much more quickly they learn if they are allowed to experience this sensation for themselves. Experience, as they say, is indeed the best teacher.

Now I'm not suggesting that we deliberately remove all the safeguards we have in place to protect public safety - but it might be nice if we remembered that to experience danger or risk is a very important part of developing into a mature, balanced individual.

I wonder how long before adrenaline becomes a controlled substance? Actually, given the increasing efforts being expended to protect us from any form of risk, I believe it already is.

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