From: Emlyn O'regan (oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au)
Date: Thu Jul 31 2003 - 20:04:26 MDT
> How about a poll...
I should have answered this myself, so here goes...
> Who on the list personally knows someone affected by
> terrorism. Personal
> acquaintances as maximum distance, no friends of friends please.
No, except if Alex Blainey counts.
> More subjective: would you rate yourself now (hopefully based
> on some kind
> of quasi-empirical guestimate, at least) as more or less safe
> than you were
> 10 years ago? 20 years ago?
I haven't noticed anyone that I personally know being actually threatened
more than in the past (ie: no one has actually copped it). So I couldn't
honestly say from that basis that I'm less safe than in the past.
In the eighties, I was far more scared of MAD. In the 90s, I felt safer (and
more optimistic). Now, I'm less secure, because the world political
situation seems to have gone crazy. Too many sabres rattling for my liking.
> What are the major threats to
> your continued
> existence/lifestyle? How about 10 years into the future?
Car crash, cancer, heart disease. Although I've seen Robert's stats now (url
in another post), and suspect that I'm more worried about car crashes than I
should be.
If geopolitical events continue on their current course, ten years from now
could see us in a wildly unstable situation, as king kong swats smashes
buildings and swats in frustrations at the little planes buzzing around his
head. Hopefully some sense will prevail on all fronts, and things might calm
down. Otherwise, the world situation becomes a growing threat.
Further in the future, a lot depends on the course of world politics. A
world that becomes substantially less free seems inevitably to lead to a
crippled fight against aging, which means we are all dead.
Emlyn
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Jul 31 2003 - 20:13:09 MDT