Thread by @AlisonBlunt

1) "Our age has been called many things, but an age of cowards may best describe it given the immense fear, anxiety and helplessness that most people display in the face of even trivial threats."

academyofideas.com/2021/07/why-an…

2) "We are not a generation that moves forward into the uncertain future in a bold & heroic manner, instead most people fear the future & prefer safety, comfort, and ease of life, to risk-taking, experimentation & freedom. Or as the 21st century sociologist Frank Furedi writes:"

3) "Overawed by uncertainty, fearing the future, conceptualizing oneself as vulnerable, weak, and fragile is not a recipe for individual or social flourishing. Rather this way of life promotes mental illness and paves the way for authoritarian rule and so, ..." ..

4) .."as we will explore in this video, the world would benefit if more people were willing to live just a little more dangerously. For danger, when a by-product of pursuing worthwhile goals or in defence of values like freedom, justice or peace, is life-promoting .." ..

5) .."and as the Roman historian Tacitus put it “the desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise."

academyofideas.com/2021/07/why-an…

6) "Not all societies, however, have ranked safety as high on the scale of values as does the modern West. Many flourishing societies of the past considered safety to be a secondary value and showed a remarkable capacity to take risks in the face of an uncertain future and .." ..

7) .."and to display courage and bravery in the presence of danger."

8) "In taking the opposite approach and in showing a strong preference for safety over risk-taking the unfolding of the human potential is not actualized, but stunted."

academyofideas.com/2021/07/why-an…

9) "For to develop on an individual level, and to advance as a species, exploration of the unknown and experimentation with novel ways of interacting with the world is a necessity and this entails taking risks and confronting danger."

10) "But such is a price that must be paid as the alternative is to stagnate in the confines of an ever-shrinking comfort zone, to regress in body and mind, and to fall victim to anxiety disorders, depression or other diseases of despair."

11) "A further flaw with an approach to the future that strongly favours the safe road is that it creates fertile ground for tyrannical, or even totalitarian rule, .." ..

12) "for as Alexander Hamilton famously stated: “to be more safe they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free”. When a society elevates safety to the position of a first-order value, freedom is by necessity demoted to the position of a second-order value .."

13) .."which can be trampled on by those in power who, throughout history, have disguised tyrannical intentions with claims of wanting to make a society safer."

14) "What makes matters worse is if a society socializes people to be fearful of the future and overawed by uncertainty, the masses will welcome, or openly call for authority figures to protect them, or as Furedi notes:"

15) "Given that a society which deifies safety is also a society ripe for tyranny, it is up to those who favour freedom to take a more heroic approach to life."

"Why an Obsession with Safety creates Sick Minds and a Sick Society" 21.7.21

16) "For when the menacing clouds of authoritarian rule darken the horizon unless more people are willing to take risks & face danger in the service of values such as freedom,justice,peace &social cooperation, the grip of tyrants will only solidify,or as John Stuart Mill put it:"

17) "As role models for the task of living more heroically we can look to the Ancient Greeks, a civilization that rightly held safety to be a secondary, not primary value, and which saw risk-taking and facing danger as morally commendable:"

18) "Friedrich Nietzsche was also a proponent of this classical approach to life and he praised Pericles, the Athenian leader who in his famous funeral speech celebrated the Athenian’s “indifference and contempt for safety, body and life”."

academyofideas.com/2021/07/why-an…

19) "Contrast this to the modern world, where, to paraphrase the author Christopher Cocker, “we tend to deprive [the bold risk-takers who spur safety] of the fullness of their lives in order to support the smallness of our own.” (The Warrior Ethos)"

20) "Fortunately, we don’t need to wait around for politicians to pass legislation to approve of a bolder approach to life, we just need to live in this manner."

"Why an Obsession with Safety creates Sick Minds and a Sick Society" 21.7.21

21) "We need to look at the uncertain future not merely as a source of threats, but also of hope and opportunity, and we need to see risk-taking as justified when in defence of cherished values or in the pursuit of worthwhile goals."

Video transcript academyofideas.com/2021/07/why-an…

22) "By demoting safety to its rightful place as a secondary value, we will cease living as a helpless pawn who must be coddled from youth to old-age by an authority figure and we will regain the ability to shape the course of our life."

23) "We will mature psychologically and become better equipped to cope with whatever the future brings, for as Nietzsche explains:"

24) "While taking greater risks and flirting with danger can shorten one’s life, it is helpful to remember that a long life is not necessarily a good life."

25) "A safe life, lacking real challenges and absent in adventure, is inert and leads to a withering away of body and mind into staleness, repetition, boredom and stagnation – such is not living, it is mere existing, or as the Roman stoic Seneca put it:"

26) "In addition, to helping one live more fully, a courageous willingness to take risks and to flirt with danger can turn us into a great benefactor of mankind. For so long as the values that guide us, and the goals we pursue, are noble and life-promoting, .." ..

27) .."courage reveals a caring attitude for the well-being of others. For unlike the coward who is concerned primarily for his or her own safety and who demands everyone else conform to his or her neurotic ways, .." ..

28) .."the hero is willing to risk life and limb in the service of values that move society forward, or as Alasdair MacIntyre wrote in After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory:"

29) "If, therefore, we desire a fulfilling life, care for our mental health and care for the future of our society we need to act with courage and not worship at the altar of safety."

academyofideas.com/2021/07/why-an…

30) "We need to take risks in the service of life promoting values, and not adhere to the view that a good life is a safe life."

31) Thanks to @academyofideas for their excellent videos and articles. The one quoted in the thread is, "Why an Obsession with Safety creates Sick Minds and a Sick Society" 21.7.21
Video and transcript academyofideas.com/2021/07/why-an…