Are We Obsessed with Safety? - Max Barry

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/15/Max_Barry_on_Risk

Satirical author Max Barry discusses our society's increasing preoccupation with avoiding risk. He argues that this need for safety has led to everything from overprotective parents to the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq.

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Bestselling satirical novelist Max Barry explains how our attitudes toward risk both define and confine us.

He uses the mishandling of financial risk in the corporate world as a springboard to a more general discussion about the ways our attitudes towards different kinds of risk define us as people -- how risk informs the fundamental decisions we make about our lives. - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Max Barry is a contemporary Australian author. He also maintains a blog on various topics, including writing, marketing and politics.

Barry is also the creator of NationStates (a game created to help advertise his novel, Jennifer Government) and is the owner of the website Tales of Corporate Oppression.

In early 2004, Barry converted his web site to a weblog and began regularly posting to it. In the November 2004 issue of the magazine Fast Company the novel Company was ranked at number 8 on a list of the top 100 people, ideas, and trends that will change how we work and live in 2005.

Barry has recently finished writing the screenplay for his novel, Syrup, which was optioned by Fortress Entertainment. Universal Pictures has acquired screen rights to Company, which will be adapted by Steve Pink. Jennifer Government has also been optioned by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's Section 8 Films.

Category:

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• security
• safety
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• pop
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[ragnarocks0]

yes but unnecessary and irrational safety measures are both a toll on the economy and a waste of time/effort

[blackiron60]

This guy is great, some excellent points there.

[DevoutSkeptic]

It has nothing to do with an obsession with safety. It's PURELY for liability reasons.

[mrfoozy47]

@1RadicalOne okay maybe but i mean come on! they cant look to the left a little bit? and then to the right? idk it just seems so ridiculous

[1RadicalOne]

Ah, I would say that is going a bit too far.

[mrfoozy47]

@1RadicalOne and those are the ones who get what they deserve

[mrfoozy47]

ok i think that if someone cant look at a train track and say, "oh i should turn my head ever so slightly to the side to save my life," then it doesnt matter how many bells or lights you put there, his ass is NOT lookin up!!! and besides, if someone was really stupid enough to walk into an on coming train, his ass got what he deserved!!! those idiots are the ones who fuck up society!!!

[xerosisonek]

The new silly taxes are not about anything other than taking the rest of the money that was not given to the Banking Authority. (BoE or Fed if you're a pom or yank.)

[PlateauEast]

this, for the most part, can be blamed on lawyers and insurance companies who sue or are sued everytime some bastard kid plays on train tracks. Jungle gym's are lower and safer than they were when i was a kid, no running, etc. All so that no one is liable.

[planetdarwin]

You know what the worrywarts will say about the stats at the beginning... that the child mortality rate is dropping BECAUSE of all these failsafes... in other words... it's working. :/ I don't believe that's a legitimate way to see it, but that's what they'll say.

[1RadicalOne]

The example of Iraq fails to capture another factor - Bush wanted to start (and worringly, may have started), a holy war.