Why We Take Our Safety For Granted

“Not a gift of a cow, nor gift of land, nor yet a gift of food, is so important as the gift of safety, which is declared to be the great gift among all gifts in this world.”

–Panchatantra, c. 5th century, vol. 1, trans. Franklin Edgerton.[1]

Driving back from dropping a family member at work recently, my wife was almost involved in a dire traffic accident at speed. There were two other cars driven through a red light, long after it had turned red.

We are not all as foolish as these drivers, and notwithstanding complacency and human lapses, we do all take risks with our safety, and by virtue of this, we take our wellbeing somewhat for granted. We could write a hundred theses on why we do this and still not actually answer the question conclusively.

Is there an acceptable yet more simplistic approach to the question?

As humans, we learn. We’re designed, or ‘configured’ if you like, to absorb information from our experience and to transmute that into behaviour for the future. This involves motives to stay safe (survival instinct) but also to be efficient, including the propensity to engineer comfort into the final outcomes of our existence. We are intrinsically (naturally) motivated to both safety and efficiency.

And this is where the clash comes; there are often competing, incompatible goals in life; ‘tensions’ between opposing forces and possible outcomes--and, it’s our choice at the end of the day what side of this tension we run to.

So, what wins out? What we think about most, often wins out.

If we think in a way that focuses toward maximum comfort, we’ll take short cuts on our safety, because our intent is to ensure the path of least resistance is taken, be that right or wrong. Yet, if we think about doing things right first time, regardless of the cost of our comfort, we’ll often do them right, take fewer shortcuts, and our safety is more assured.

We hardly ever think that our lives are potentially over so quickly. Think of a tragic accident; that incident ‘that’ll never happen to me.’ Tragedies happen in the blink of an eye--then there’s no going back! What’s done is done--and dusted.

We take our safety for granted because, quite simply, we take calculated risks to ensure our comfort. Some of these risks are perfectly acceptable as the consequence is minor; but some risks are fraught with danger and sooner or later we stand to ‘cop it.’

We can view health risks the same way, but the major difference is our health choices have more latent effects; safety risks involve more immediate consequences.

Self-preservation is often about comfort; sometimes the path of least resistance is a potentially-fatal trick and we can easily be fooled into a potentially life-ending choice.

At the root of it all, of course, is the virtue of patience. That’s an entirely new discussion. Another ‘entirely new’ discussion is how to protect ourselves from others who recklessly live life, like our friends who routinely run red lights.

Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

[1] Daniel Kehoe & Stephen Godden, You Lead, They’ll Follow: How to inspire, lead and manage people. Really. Vol. 1 (Sydney Australia: McGraw-Hill, 2003), p. 26.