What is safe for me is for me to decide. Am I capable to decide? Probably, If I rely on intelligence that emerges from my natural being with a silent mind rather than the knowledge that I have accumulated about safety.
There was an old water tower in my hometown and the compound guard forbid tress passing. As a young boy, I just wanted to go near the leaking tower and play with the leaking water. Climbing it had not crossed my mind. The tower had loosely secured, rusty metallic ladders. Also my mother forbid me to venture into the tower compound. It was unsafe. She also forbid me to climb trees. She loved me.
Sensing physical danger is known to be the strongest cause for fear. Fear helps to protect the self. Personal fear might also help to protect others. Through evolution, those who did not understand fear, perished. We are here because our ancestors avoided physical harm and they survived. Fear played a role in it. Did they have safety rules as we have now?
It won’t be unreasonable to believe that every living organism feels fear. It’s a natural response activated due to experiences from evolutionary and personal past. It seems fear comes embedded in a newborn. Reaction to threat and danger triggers chemical and physiological changes in the body.
Infrastructural adaptation to ensure a safe environment for humans is a political KPI. Even though safety rules and civilised behaviour are embodiments of modern societies, we often encounter the feeling of fear. Safety as an idea has been understood as the antidote to fear. Major attention is on physical safety and it’s important. Whether it’s traffic, architecture, equipments for food preparation, DIY tools, physical safety has benefits. The rules are in place but adoption of safety rules might be driven by cultural or personal preferences.
Collective safety is a concern of modern humanity. Floods won’t stop flooding and heat waves won’t cool down, even if it were unsafe for life. The universe cares only by providing intelligence to life form. Intelligence is available to every organism on this planet. Plants, trees, microbes, animals, insects etc. are all careful, but they don’t practice safety like we humans do. I wonder, if the safety rules are devised only to protect our societies from fear or to preserve human life. Whether it’s for removing fear from society or preserving human life, the idea of safety needs discussion. How come, with so much investment on safety, our societies are still fearful. Need for physical safety is obvious but what about the psychological safety.
Don’t fear! It’s safe!
Common sense has been the rule for my adherence to my physical safety and I believe others have the same. Evaluating risk to safety may differ due to past individual experiences. Safety rules made for social benefit have been derived from collective experiences and are same for everyone. Safety rules are taught in schools, printed, published and distributed. To avoid physical harm, everyone is advised to follow them. Many a times the rules that were meant to relieve the humans from fear become cause of the fear.
I have met people who are fearful due to their knowledge of safety rules rather than due to assessing own physical capacities through own intelligence. Eventually, safety seeking humans find comfort in collective safety arrangements but their natural trait for adventure diminishes. How can we connect with that intelligence that universe has put in place for every life form?
According to most of the rules, it’s dangerous to expose our bodies to exciting actions. I believe dangerous experiences too are necessary. It generates excitement and gives courage to extend our physical limits. Dangerous experiences have let humans to explore more. They could venture in space, reach the depths of ocean and climb the highest mountains. It probably was possible due to individual evaluation of risks rather than a collective safety manual.
Our societies try hard to reduce danger. Even with all the collective intelligence and safety rules in our modern societies, humans have failed to eradicate religious conflicts and wars which are dangerous and unsafe. Due to safety rules and safe environments, physical danger or threat to the body might not anymore be the most common reason for fear. Personal relationship with fear is what matters. There’s a way out of it. Know yourself.
When the guard was away, I climbed the water tower. On noticing, the guard was verbally cruel to me. He feared losing his job. The excitement was immense. Self learnt safety lessons are still with me.