... but really, are you TOTALLY safe - are we totally safe???
Life lesson: There is no such thing as 100% safe. It does not exist in the real world. It is only our own misconception or ignorance of potential danger that makes us feel we are completely safe.
What does exist is risk - some things are likely to happen (like catching the flu if you teach grade school kids every day), and some things are less likely to happen (being hit and killed by a meteor).
The odds of you being killed by a terrorist is infinitesimally small. You are far more likely to win the lottery or be struck by lightening. That doesn't mean that it is impossible. After all, every year someone wins the lottery and some people are struck by lightening.
But the point is it's not going to be you - you are protected by the crowd - just like huge flocks of birds or schools of fish or herds of bison. Yes - a couple of them are going to get picked off to be someone's dinner, but the huge numbers make it unlikely to happen to any one individual. So being careful and alert is good and pays off, but being fearful and structuring your life around that worse case scenario is a waste of time and happiness.
It is this basic fact of life that terrorists want you to ignore. They want you personally to be very afraid. They want to use that fear to disrupt your life and disrupt the politics of the society in which you live. They want you to forget the odds and instead play on your emotions and the fact that our animal brains don't know the difference between improbable danger and imminent danger. Our brains and emotions tend to treat all danger the same.
So, I say, punch back at the terrorists. Don't give in to the fear. Don't change your life one bit based on hit-by-lightening odds. Instead, pay attention to real threats. For example:
- The odds of being injured while driving your car within ten miles of you home is very high. Pay attention on familiar routes - slow down - assume the guy in the next car is about to have a heart attack and go out of control. (Something much, much more likely to happen to you than being killed by a terrorist.)
- The odds of being seriously injured as a pedestrian when navigating city sidewalks is also very high. Protect yourself - only cross in crosswalks. Even then, assume cars aren't going to pay attention to signals and give them a wide berth.
- Also likely - picking up disease from interacting with objects in a public place. Norovirus, for example, spreads quickly on objects and is not easily killed in the environment. Wash your hands with very warm water several times a day.
Taking these precautions will make you
safer (not safe). You will live much longer taking these actions, rather than avoiding public places out of a fear of terrorists.
