The problem with the obsession with eliminating danger from the world is that reward comes from risky.
When I say reward, I am not referring to financial reward that the old school capitalist world has sold us. That reward has only created the mass money making machines of the industrialised world, where precision like productivity churns out bland, homogenised stuff and trinkets for the masses.
I am talking about a more spiritual, meaningful and fulfilling reward of happiness from taking a risk and succeeding.
The woes of modern life for many in the developed world is caused by the sanitised life we lead, marching like zombies to the ‘factory’ to produce mainly unnecessary stuff for the masses to consume.
Even in the glitzy, buzzing world of ‘start-ups’ and entrepreneurs, many are in fact poorly paid lackeys of angel investors and VC funds, many have sold their soul to be ‘investor ready’ and the risk is lessened.
Now the weird and artisanal are rising up to live dangerously and create something risky and different. They are serving ever-increasing niche markets of the connected world. The reward they get is doing something they love and the sense of fulfilment is huge.
The more different, the riskier it is, and the personal reward is bigger. It’s the rush of excitement that is missing for many.
Danger is exciting, safe is dull. We are not here on this planet to be safe. As the human race, we didn’t migrate from the plains of East Africa 70,000 years ago to reach 2016 by playing it safe, by not relishing some danger.
Live a dangerous life – it’s fun.
Philip Dodson 