This logic can be taken too far—I don’t see the point of feeling constantly anxious -, but at least on an intellectual level, I think it does make a certain amount of sense. It’s hard to notice the insanity or inadequacy of the world until it affects you personally. Some examples of this:
People buy insurance to be safe from <disaster>, but insurance companies often don’t want to pay out. So when you buy insurance, you might incorrectly feel safe, but only notice that you weren’t if a disaster actually happens.
If you’ve never been ill, then it’s easy to believe that if you got ill, you could just go to the doctor and be healed. Sometimes things do work that way. At other times, you might learn that reality is more complicated, and civilization less competent, than previously thought.
I think the Covid pandemic, and the (worldwide!) inadequate policy response, should’ve been at least a bit traumatizing to every person on this planet. Not necessarily on an emotional level, but certainly on an intellectual level. There’s a kind of trust one can only have in institutions one knows ~nothing about (related: Gell-Mann amnesia), and the pandemic is the kind of event that should’ve deservedly broken this kind of trust.
Agree. (I’m not saying that losing one’s trust in civilizational adequacy is necessarily a bad thing on net, just that it can also lead to some maladaptive thought patterns.)
This logic can be taken too far—I don’t see the point of feeling constantly anxious -, but at least on an intellectual level, I think it does make a certain amount of sense. It’s hard to notice the insanity or inadequacy of the world until it affects you personally. Some examples of this:
People buy insurance to be safe from <disaster>, but insurance companies often don’t want to pay out. So when you buy insurance, you might incorrectly feel safe, but only notice that you weren’t if a disaster actually happens.
If you’ve never been ill, then it’s easy to believe that if you got ill, you could just go to the doctor and be healed. Sometimes things do work that way. At other times, you might learn that reality is more complicated, and civilization less competent, than previously thought.
I think the Covid pandemic, and the (worldwide!) inadequate policy response, should’ve been at least a bit traumatizing to every person on this planet. Not necessarily on an emotional level, but certainly on an intellectual level. There’s a kind of trust one can only have in institutions one knows ~nothing about (related: Gell-Mann amnesia), and the pandemic is the kind of event that should’ve deservedly broken this kind of trust.
Agree. (I’m not saying that losing one’s trust in civilizational adequacy is necessarily a bad thing on net, just that it can also lead to some maladaptive thought patterns.)