Does obsession with risk make us fragile?

image: NY times

Today is winter solstice. The shortest day, and the point at which we set out on the road to Spring. Right now, Saturn and Jupiter are aligning in the south west sky in the closest alignment in eight hundred years, and in the same way that many think is what gave us the Bethlehem Star. Climate change isn't stopping. Covid-19 is a temporary side show. There's a lot going on.

We have evolved from ancestors for whom risk was a natural daily companion, from the beast in the bushes to the risk of getting caught out in harsh conditions to disease. We have found ways to mitigate many of these - but have we taken them too far? Are we too easily frightened?

Perhaps we have become so used to eliminating risk that we find ourselves incapable of responding effectively when we encounter it, as though somehow it's somehow unfair and unreasonable. That someone or something must be to blame, and our reaction has become to call a lawyer.

Anybody who has done a work risk assessment knows ho…