Fear & Risk Aversion
May 1, 2009
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Posted by Michael S. Langston
Well – this will be one of those additional times that I’m a pariah that no one agrees with, but I think I’m getting used to it by now 
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First – a brief disclaimer. I think flying a plane around low level areas in NYC without warning wasn’t a smart move (article here), however the fear born out by some was an obvious overreaction to what was taking place.
It amazes me how scared as a society we are of things that will likely never affect us, like abduction of a child from strangers or a terrorist attack using the exact same tactic as before or worrying about whether a neighbor has a gun, while things that are much more dangerous such as driving, we don’t seem to care about.
Frank Furedi (his site) a professor of sociology at Kent University has written extensively on the politics of fear including a new article about the next big scary thing, the dreaded swine flu…
The explosion of global fear about the outbreak of a deathly flu virus in Mexico is more a response to the dramatisation of influenza than to the actual threat it poses.
There is nothing unusual about the outbreak of flu. Every year, thousands of people die from the flu, and, in normal conditions, society has learned to cope with the flu threat. From time to time, an outbreak of flu turns into a global pandemic, leading to a catastrophic loss of life. However, there is no evidence that the so-called swine flu, which has so far claimed a relatively small number of lives, will turn into a pandemic. Rather, what we are faced with is a health crisis that has been transformed into a moral drama…
Even in a recent Stratfor article detailing risks we are posing to counterintelligence operations not only now, by Obama releasing the torture memos, but in the past as well (here):
…Politics and moral arguments aside, the end effect of the memos’ release is that people who have put their lives on the line in U.S. counterterrorism efforts are now uncertain of whether they should be making that sacrifice. Many of these people are now questioning whether the administration that happens to be in power at any given time will recognize the fact that they were carrying out lawful orders under a previous administration. It is hard to retain officers and attract quality recruits in this kind of environment. It has become safer to work in programs other than counterterrorism…
…Other than during the peak times of this cycle, counterterrorism is considered an ancillary program that is sometimes seen as an interesting side tour of duty, but more widely seen as being outside the mainstream career path — risky and not particularly career-enhancing. This assessment is reinforced by such events as the recent release of the memos.
At the CIA, being a counterterrorism specialist in the clandestine service means that you will most likely spend much of your life in places line Sanaa, Islamabad and Kabul instead of Vienna, Paris or London. This means that, in addition to hurting your chances for career advancement, your job also is quite dangerous, provides relatively poor living conditions for your family and offers the possibility of contracting serious diseases…
…Unlike in television shows like “24,” it is not uncommon in the real world for a meeting called to plan a counterterrorism operation to feature more CIA lawyers than case officers or analysts. These staff lawyers are intricately involved in the operational decisions made at headquarters, and legal issues often trump operational considerations. The need to obtain legal approval often delays decisions long enough for a critical window of operational opportunity to be slammed shut. This restrictive legal environment goes back many years in the CIA and is not a new fixture brought in by the Obama administration. There was a sense of urgency that served to trump the lawyers to some extent after 9/11, but the lawyers never went away and have reasserted themselves firmly over the past several years…
This is just another example of the asinine fear laden, risk averse society we have built. This type society not only makes stupid runs of panic possible, like some of the current economic issues and this idiotic plane deal, but it also stops innovation and potentially makes us less safe.
A society that can’t take risk is a society that will slowly wither away.
Categories: Critical Thinking, Political Philosophy
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Tags: Critical Thinking, health care, Politics of Fear
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