Is Safety the most elusive of all creations?

Answer 1

Safety is a societally-created illusion, one which bears its roots from man's primitive times. Is it the most elusive?

I believe that for us here in North America, Bronwen's reference to September 11, 2001 strikes at the heart of our rapidly dissipating misconception about life and society on this side of the ocean. During those days and weeks which followed, our once collectively youthful glow turned darkly somber, but we here are fortunate to have had this awakening so late in our culture's evolution.

It's unimaginable how obviously precarious life before "us" and our dawning here has been. Primitive man must have felt "small" indeed in his vast and dangerous environment. Miraculously, mankind evolved sufficiently to rise above tremendous odds. Medieval man lived by the sword and either died by it, or fell early on to any one of the many ravages of nature. It is no wonder that religion and concepts of God held an iron-tight grip on a fearful world. The world has been historically, one continuous battlefield and blood bath after another. Ominously dangerous threats to Safety were not adequately tamed by man until perhaps as late as post-World War ll, where we witnessed a revolutionary whiplash to our profound lack of well-being, security, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The 60's with it's proclamations of peace, love and the freedom to indulge in self-inflicted hallucinations threw out the welcome mat to the illusion of Safety and mantras of "Never Again". Yet we still did not evolve adequately from our reptilian brain to manifest tangible proof of these words. And still the powerful opiate of the masses persisted. Then came September 11, and a rude awakening to our self-created sense of Safety.

As the dark days from that tragedy fade into misty memories, and the blood seeped crust of our earth heals itself, so too do our memories fade...And the mantra of "Never Again" evolves into a battle hymn of revenge. We are an arrogant breed of warriors and combatants vying for the world's resources, insatiable and oddly oblivious to the frailty of Life. That is, until the next time, when we will be reminded of our precarious grip on life - again and again and again and as long as it takes for either our authentic awakening or our end.

The most elusive thing of all is our own concept of Safety and our efforts to maintain a consistently healthy respect for Safety, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of a peaceful existence.

Answer 2

An interesting idea. Using elusive to mean hard to grasp, the inference is that it is possible to create, but safety always appears to be ultimately, illusory. But then again, their are gradients...safety can have a finite quality. Perhaps a function of awarenss...

I'm hard pressed to think of anything more elusive (other than a politican with humility), but I'll throw out the idea of awareness/knowledge as possibily being the most elusive of all creations. Though safety feels like a safer choice :-)

Answer 3

Too bad we don't come with a Safety instruction manual when we yell our first surprise at the world. Safety IS the
most elusive of all creation having to find that out the hard
way....12 times at least.

Answer 4

Safety is merely an illusion which allows us to get on with our daily business.

People in the pre-9/11 world used to get very angry with me because I said safety was an illusion, but one which is necessary in an open society. I actually argued that the more open and free a society is, the more vulnerable it is to outside attacks. I was speaking, naturally, about the kind of safety people talk about when they talk about governments and societies. Anyway, people called me unpatriotic because I said the things I did. 11 September 2001 was a very sad day for me for many reasons, but one of the greatest reasons was because I saw so many people lose their innocence, and witnessed first-hand the devastation as they realized that there is no guarantee of safety anywhere.

The one thing I think people need to realize is that while safety is an illusion, the shattering of that illusion should not allow them to become paralyzed with fear. There are so many good and wonderful things in this world for us to experience--it's a shame to pass on everything simply because it might be unsafe. Once we get here, we only get one solid guarantee--we will have to leave again at some point. Between those two points, we should strive to learn and experience and think and feel. Allowing ourselves to be paralyzed with fear simply makes that impossible, so we should avoid it as best we can.

Answer 5

Safety isn't elusive. It's an illusion...sigh

Answer 6

It is an ideal situation! Every ideal situation is the most elusive as well as the less elusive amongst all the ideal situations because they all equally elusive or, if you are such an optimistic, all equally achievable.

Answer 7

I believe safety is much more a discovery than a creation.

Answer 8

Chaos is often a friend sometimes. Think of all the modern advances that have been discovered by accident. Safety keeps it check if we're vigilant.

Answer 9

Now that I think about it,safety really is hard to obtain for there's danger everywhere.

Answer 10

Yes... 'zero' risk is a myth. Because as we build in precautions to remove risks, the precautions themselves being processes can not be free from risk.