Dangerologists

Dangerologists

These are dangerous times, not just for the real dangers for health and the economy but also because of the numerous dangerologists that have been coming out of the woodwork and reminding the public that they had foreseen the disaster in this book, that interview, this blog or than vlog. Sometimes they merit a nod for their predictions but mostly they deserve to be dismissed without further discussion.

Predicting possible disasters and pointing out potential dangers is easy. Everything we do is precarious, from walking on the pavement to flying to another continent, from staying with what we have to radically changing lives and environments. The ant that escapes the soles of our feet knows all about the precarity of life. We know it, too, when we manage to listen to our bodies and their anxieties at the edge of a cliff or in uncomfortable temperatures. The smallest irregularity, the tiniest miscalculation may be enough to bring on disastrous results.

The only thing dangerologists can do for us is open our eyes to systematic errors of judgement, help us identify behavioural and cultural blind spots beyond the basic precarity of life. Walking on stairs is inherently dangerous but should we just be extra careful when doing so or do we need to improve stair design? Is our usual hygiene insufficient for preventing viral infections, is the high density of people in many places inherently dangerous, is the high mobility of our times to blame for the rapid worldwide spread of disease? Much of that seems so bleeding obvious that I don't care to listen any longer.