Safetyism Running Amuck
We've regulated and socially sanctioned every behavior to death and many times, our desire to be safe actually makes things more dangerous.
Let me start with a story. I remember my first free day in Korea. My first week was at the Hyundai Training Center in Yongin, near Seoul. We were basically locked in there 24/7, learning all about Korean norms, culture and language. The government wanted us to be prepared for entering Korean society on our own. Fine. But then my Friday evening came and my minders picked me up in a van and dropped me off to my new home, an “officetel” in a neighborhood in Seoul.
Once they left, I was alone in this tiny apartment and hungry as hell. I remembered as we entered and zoomed up to the 14th floor, there was a McDonald’s on the first floor. So I went down to get some food. Couldn’t be that hard to explain what I wanted, without any command of the Korean language.
I got my food easily enough. I’d traveled a lot and I’m skilled in the fine art of pointing, shaking my head and the fine art of paralinguistics - non-verbal communication. I took my tray and sat down.
It was 11:30 pm. But the place was packed. Packed with kids, running around, helter-skelter. 3,4,5 year olds. Someone was mopping the floor but there was no concern as the kids screamed and chased each other around the restaurant. I was aghast. All the sharp edges! The slippery floor! It was way too late for their good health! Shouldn’t these kids be asleep at this hour?
A second story. I am considering buying a 49cc scooter. I went to see a few and was told that I needed an M license to ride one in Ontario. Basically a motorcycle license. My G license only allowed me to drive huge pickups, trucks, tractors and a lot of other associated vehicles, but not a scooter! God forbid I kill someone. I’m sure soon, they’ll want you licensed to ride a bike. Remember I said this!
I recount these two stories to introduce the creeping “safetyism” that seemingly rules the cultural norms and legislative mindset in Western societies.
Safetyism at its root means that we as a society consider people's safety to be our top moral imperative. This can be safe from physical danger or from negative emotions or anything giving a perceived benefit of “wellness”. It was a term first coined in an Atlantic essay in 2015 by the authors of A Coddling Of The American Mind. The authors argued that the overprotection of university students from the contrary opinions of others was having a negative effect on society and student intellectual development. We all remember how universities blocked (or let’s use their term, “disinvited”) so many comedians, public intellectuals and politicans they deemed having dangerous ideas that would hurt students.
It really was the splash of water on the face of woke culture. It also gave birth to cancel culture - we need to keep everyone safe from antithetical ideas. It’s an unwillingness to be exposed to or allow any alternative views and the shaming of those who hold them.
Myself, I see safetyism as a longer process that stems from governmental overreach that has been bureaucratically changing the landscape in which we live since the early 1970s. It’s been creeping into every aspect of our daily lives. Matthew Crawford in his wonderful book - Why We Drive: Towards A Philosophy Of The Open Road, outlined this process well. He’s worth a read and watch on Youtube also.
People have always wanted others to be responsible for their actions, their day-to-day. It’s much easier that way, we don’t have to be our brother’s keeper or think about our actions and their results. Just follow rules, and regulations and live estranged from the wider community.
I’ve written about this fundamental facet of human nature when describing The Grand Inquisitor chapter of the Brothers Karamazov. If Jesus came back to earth, we’d crucify him again because his essential message is against caretaker, all-controlling big C church. Jesus called for our own revelation, our own concern for each other, and being our neighbor’s keeper, and NOT this being done through committees and Caesars.
Dostoevsky is telling all of them that institutions and social structures don’t matter if the hearts of the people they serve aren’t free. He is telling us that the creation of a better world doesn’t happen at the level of government and institutions; it happens one human heart at a time. That’s what we live for - freedom to speak, believe, be and drive our own bus. Liberation Theology.
Of course, we need regulation, we need laws. But we don’t need laws to replace both common sense and also our own ability to resolve things civilly among ourselves. We don’t need laws that encroach into our personal lives and behaviors and even thoughts - but that is what is going on. The government has become the communist “Father figure”, looking out for our every need and concern. All people are expected to do are work, eat, sleep, and repeat. And that is wrong because many of these laws and social norms cause much more harm than the safety and wellness they purport to assure
Let me end by outlining some examples, both wide and narrow.
Don’t do your own research. It was the mantra of the Covid 19 pandemic. Individuals can’t possibly make their own medical and scientific-based decisions so just trust us, your government, the all-knowing who rely on experts. We all know how this turned out and the actual, visible, ongoing harm from both the vaccine injected and the mandates imposed. It was a stupid, socially sanctioned form of safetyism. The mask continues to be safetyism’s very visible symbol.
Jails. They’ve grown in leaps and bounds. It’s all about keeping the public safe, right? Can’t be lenient. Can’t try to rehabilitate. Just keep them off the streets. Yet, jails have been huge failures. They don’t keep the public safe but rather are a breeding ground for more criminality, pain, violence, homelessness and more … a disaster. Plus the financial costs. Plus the creation of a system of policing that pays little attention to protecting the community and just brutally enforces laws. Here is an everyday example. Nothing safe about this policing. Read some of the work of Angela Davis to get an idea of all the harm caused by the prison industrial complex.
Pharmaceutics for all. We as a society have been brainwashed to go to the doctor at any sign of ill health, or irregularity of body and mind. And part of that safetyism mindset is that we believe we are safe if the doctor gives us pills, remedies, drugs of any and all kinds. 84% of all doctor consultations result in a written prescription. Let that sink in. Forget drug addicts, we are all drug addicts in a sense. We forsake our own bodily responsibility and give it over to someone that we believe will keep us safe. But if the opioid-fentanyl crisis is any indication - that is just selling our souls to the devil. Let us also mention the 3rd highest cause of all death - hospital and doctor error. Yes, that’s right. Add on medical complications from prescribed medicine and it is even higher. Who is keeping who safe?
Playgrounds. Ever go to one these days? Nobody is usually there, and no kids out playing. They’ve been made so safe, there is no fun in them anymore. Climbing trees? Against the law - you could lose your kids if you let them climb a tree. It’s just become ridiculous. It is regulatory, father government overkill - a sign of safetyism.
Are kids drinking wine or alcohol at home? It is against the law in many places and there are many sub-regulations governing how parents might allow this. We got to protect those kids! They might grow up to be alcoholics if you let them have a quick sip of Merlot or a swig of whiskey. OMG! Drink alcohol on the beach. No way. Totally illegal to drink outside (save your own property) in Ontario - you might get drunk and raise hell! Let’s nip that in the bud. And that’s exactly a sign of safetyism - nipping things in the bud. Regulating behavior before anything wrong happens - kind of Minority Reportish.
Food. Lots of safetyism surrounding food and of course much of it good. But many aspects of food regulation also cause much harm. Expiry dates for one. So much good food is thrown out because of its expiry date - some research shows up to 1/3 of our food supply. And people are going hungry out there. Here, regulation and safetyism replace our individual human capacities. Smell, looks, texture, and common sense. I remember once buying some frozen peas, FROZEN. The cashier noted it was expired (it came displayed on the register with a “ding”) and so I couldn’t buy them. Go figure. Most expired food is perfectly good, maybe not just at its best. Think of the issue of non-pasteurized milk. It’s illegal to sell unpasteurized milk in whatever form. Despite much of the evidence for this regulation being found to be wrong. Yet the “safety” remained in place - to the benefit of big farms. And that’s a problem with regulation also, it doesn’t move with the times well and it also can be abused in the name of money and not truly the safety of Joe and Jane citizens. By the way, I grew up drinking liters of unpasteurized milk daily.
It truly gets ridiculous - our current slide into safetyism. It is a rejection of what life is - a messy, sometimes dangerous place that one can’t ever legislate into perfect safety. And it rejects exactly what a healthy society wants - a citizenry that looks after each other, cares for each other and takes responsibility for their actions and the consequences that it has on others. Safetyism detrains us and moves us into stupidity - that is its truly evil aspect.
If you're like me, you've pondered many times how we got to where we are today. About a year ago, we lived in a seemingly comprehensible and rational society born of the Enlightenment. We valued freedom and governed via representative democracy, and we looked down upon authoritarian nations such as China. Then something happened. It seemed like something snapped in the very fabric of Western Civilization, and virtually overnight it all turned on its head. Our values were tossed out the window. We work up in a world of draconian executive rule, a world where to question the narrative was to be become a pariah, instantly lambasted by all. Debate was suddenly immoral, and we prided ourselves on a culture of putting complete trust in whoever the media deemed to be an expert. In fact, thinking for yourself and doing your own research made you a villain. What happened? - @FurrySoftKittens