This morning, as I sat down to my computer with my cup of coffee (my morning ritual, as I shake off the slumber) and loaded up my daily nerd news sites it dawned on me that today is the fateful September 11th. If this seems strange to you, that I didn't think about it well in advance (seeings how I have one of them new-fangled calendars), keep in mind that a) my brain brain is pretty focused on friends and family and daily life so dates (even seasons) pass by and I don't notice, and b) I don't pay attention to regular news outlets (because frankly, they're too depressing and spew fear as if it were free beer at a brewfest) so it sort of 'crept up on me'.
However, rather than dwell on the usual news, I found an article on Wired News that I found very interesting given the way the news (and US Government) paints things… a chart (playing on the US Government's color-coded alert system) that takes mortality data over an 11 year period on the various dangers that confront US citizens. The chart (to the left) reveals that we are 10x more likely to die from an accidental drowning than in a terrorist attack, and more than 80x more likely to die by driving off of the road (the chart doesn't specifically break down whether these are due to drunk driving or sleepiness, but either way). Pretty interesting, and definately something that may help keep perspective on things.
5 replies on “Perspective”
Argh…your blog ate my comment! Lesee if I can remember what I wrote 30 seconds ago…
Heh, getting killed by terrorists is neck-and-neck with being killed by law enforcement. What does *that* say…?
I’d take this with a grain of salt anyway. After all, there are 3 kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. One could obviously argue that the reason fewer people are killed by terrorists than by most anything else is because of the measures put in place by the government to protect against that sort of thing. I mean, it’s not like the Army or the DHS or whoever is protecting anyone from falling off ladders or drowning or whatever.
Of course, you could obviously also argue that I’m an idiot. 🙂
GD: yeah, I know, stats can show anything depending on who’s presenting them (and how good they are at twisting facts) but really, DHS and Patriot Act and all that won’t stop terrorism, it can (and sadly, may) still happen, but the point here is that there’s little point worrying about it. I think the big media companies (and the current administration) is very good at creating an unreasonable level of fear of the “them” and it’s not particularly healthy, especially when you think for a moment that you’re far far more likely to die by driving to work (or going for a swim in the river) than you are from the ‘islamo fascists’ (as Bush would call ’em). Sorry, tried to keep this from getting political (I was careful to word my post) but now I’m just getting riled up. I could go on, but I won’t. 🙂
oh, I had another thought, even if the Army or DHS WAS trying to protect people from falling off ladders or drowing, that too would still happen. 🙂
Okay, your image verification is starting to bug me…it ate my comment again! 😐
Anyway, I wrote a bunch of crap about being more afraid of the ninjas following me than of terrorists, and then some line about playing Devil’s Advocate with my earlier post.