http://faerye.net/post/the-control-of-riskComments on "The control of risk" - Faerye Net2008-08-09T12:48:28+00:00http://faerye.net/post/the-control-of-risk#comment-2322re: shrug2008-08-09T12:48:28+00:002008-08-09T12:48:28+00:00<p>I suspect we differ fundamentally in this respect: I don’t fret about such things. So for me, there’s no pending relief because there is no suffering.</p>
<p>This is not to say that I fundamentally ignore emergency preparedness, but that, being prepared, I don’t worry.</p>
<p>There is no way in which an earthquake could harm me personally that is not more likely to happen some other way.</p>
<p>Perhaps that is sophistry and sleight of mind. But it is, I feel, useful.</p>Kalkinhttp://faerye.net/post/the-control-of-risk#comment-2321re: shrug2008-08-09T09:37:49+00:002008-08-09T09:37:49+00:00<p>It is unreasonable to expect the Big One ™ to kill me, but perhaps equally preposterous is the implied idea I have (“able to stop fretting about it for the rest of my life.”) that the relief of not waiting for the Big One anymore would outweigh anything short of death the quake could do to me. It’s a deeply flawed logical position, but then it’s usually not wise to examine closely the ways in which one copes with mortality. They’re usually more superstition, sleight of hand and sophistry than wisdom.</p>Felicityhttp://faerye.nethttp://faerye.net/post/the-control-of-risk#comment-2320shrug2008-08-08T21:33:03+00:002008-08-08T21:33:03+00:00<p>My mom lived through the Good Friday quake. They really don’t get much bigger than that.</p>
<p>Sure. People died. Stuff broke. It was a mess. But lots of people didn’t die.</p>
<p>I kind of want the big one to hit in my lifetime. I want to see it, feel it, hear it. I want to tell stories about it to my grandkids.</p>
<p>You have to catch a whiff of your death following you around from time to time to remind you that the merely living is an act of supreme defiance, and it ends eventually. One must enjoy the ride.</p>
<p>One ought to take responsibility for one’s own risks, of course. But there will always be those who refuse to do so. You can’t have a system complex enough to be interesting without parasites. They’re just a part of the landscape.</p>Kalkin