Risk Taking in an Emergency or Disaster
Risk taking is currently seen as a negative personality trait, right up there with a rigid morality.
It’s understandable, from a certain viewpoint. If you want to create a society that is malleable to the desires of those in power, then you do not want people taking actions on their own, or having opinions that do not conform to current mass thinking.
People are glad to buy into the illusion of stability and safety that goes along with that, because most people desire safety and sameness above all. I’d cite an example, but there really is no need. It’s easy to see in every part of life.
In an emergency or disaster, things are radically different. The rules that applied a few seconds ago are out the window.
As people in New Orleans and Haiti found out, you can’t just yell help and expect it to arrive. 911 is down. Your cell phone is down. Police and fire services are down. There is no water coming from the tap, nor electricity for the refrigerator or TV or lights or… anything. Most people have only enough food on hand for two or three meals… or less.
Risk taking was dangerous, unwanted behavior a few seconds ago. It is now an intrinsic part of the landscape. You have to decide about staying where you are, or moving to another location. You will not know the outcome of your decision until it is too late to revise it. If someone has an injury, you must risk waiting for medical aid, or risk doing something about it yourself.
You shall be a risk taker.
There is no way around it. Even if a person stands with bunny-in-the-headlights eyes while danger overtakes them… that too is a risk-taking choice. It’s just a very, very bad one.
Amazingly, that is the common reaction for most people now. Airline attendants are being trained to SHOUT LOUDLY and obnoxiously at passengers when trying to move them off the plane after an accident, before the cabin catches fire. Otherwise people just sit there… and sometimes become engulfed in flames along with the airplane. Amazing. But I guess it is understandable. They are suddenly thrown into a situation where action, and therefore risk, is suddenly a requirement for survival. People just do not know how to handle it very well.
A lot of people who read this blog are well trained and have no problem taking risks when necessary. You may be one of them. My psychological profile shows me at the very bottom, negative end of the scale, as an unapologetic risk taker. You may have the same score. You can’t have worse.
And yet my larder is full of emergency supplies.
Ah, balance, the key to a happy life. On one hand, I do everything I can to mitigate risk before the event. First aid kits, solar stills for water, emergency shelter, ropes… you name it.
But once things start happening, I know that everything I do has a risk to it, and I’m as comfortable as can be with that. Notice I say ‘as can be’. Once, in very bad situation, my body literally started shaking as I realized I had to do something before I froze to the spot… which would probably have meant my death. That’s definitely the time to gird your loins and go for it. At that point, any decision is better than no decision. I made one. Apparently it was a good one, because I’m still here.
That is why I think it is a good thing for everyone to become comfortable with risk taking.
Here’s the funny part… all life is always a risk, whether we realize it or not. Maybe you put your health care completely in the hands of your doctor. Man, that’s a risk if I ever heard one. You drive on roads that are divided by only a line of paint! That’s all there is between you and oncoming traffic! And yet you probably feel quite secure doing it. Why is that?
It is because you have decided it is a reasonable risk, most likely in a subconscious, unspoken sort of way. Yes, you already are a risk taker.
So celebrate it! At first it may be uncomfortable looking around you and seeing how much risk you take on a daily basis. Like eating food that comes from … where?… and is processed in… what sort of sanitary or unsanitary facility?
But you’ll get used to it. So that when the time comes and risk is all around you, when decisions must be made that will quickly affect your life and the lives of others, you will be more comfortable making those choices, taking those risks.
