The Laws Law
Ever hear the term 'nanny state'? It refers to the type of governance where everything is overly monitored, protected and regulated. It is a hyperbole used by those who are not pleased with an area's legislation, finding it impeding on basic rights of privacy. Though it may be a stretch from actual reality, the direction of civilization's progress is heading further toward that than the opposite.
I myself am using this all as hyperbole for my most recent gripe of the state of things. I have been noticing recently (though I'm sure it has been this way for how knows long) that each and every major incident in the national news sparks a cry for some sort of regulatory action. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for laws that improve society, but I feel there is a time when action is needed and it is rarely after the very first occurrence. Things like the amber alert system or the surgeon general's warning on cigarettes, these laws came about after a trend was noticed and enough instances required a better solution. The important thing to know is that these regulations were a result of problems occurring over and over during a given amount of time; i.e. something needed to be done.
Recently though, it seems the solution or 'easy fix' to a given catastrophe is to delve into the reasons for its cause and make new laws so it won't happen again. Take the horrible shooting at the Holocaust museum a few months ago. It was one crazy happenstance with an agreeably tragic outcome, but reviewing the case, the building and other factors won't necessarily keep it from happening again. I could understand if there were multiple shootings occurring, but to me this just seemed to be a freak incident that any kind of rules would do nothing to prevent. Another example is this weekend's helicopter crash near New York. Again, a horrible tragedy, but does that one crash (out of how many hundreds of flights per day) necessitate a complete overhaul of the air traffic control system around that area? In this case, I would understand if planes were exploding all over the Five Points, but this seems a bit extreme. Even the recent metro crash here in DC seems like a very out-of-the-norm accident. Yes, the DC metro is quite old, but I feel the metro system should be re-evaluated on that point alone, not because a freak accident finally brought it to everyone's attention.
The examples above are just a few out of the many national and local happenings that get the population in a stir. Arguments can be made for the above examples since they are at a national scale, but I think the outcry just comes from the typical fear of 'maybe that could happen to me'. Well, here's an rude awakening: shit happens. It happens to everyone. But if you take a step back and realize just how many people are in this country alone and how many activities go on day to day without any tragedy happening, then you can see how the chances of any of these horrible occurrences happening again is quite slim.
Another part of this whole situation that I don't think people quite get is the fact that even if laws are in place and new regulations are made, crappy accidents can still occur. The percent chance may be less, but it can still happen. I just don't think it is worth the time and effort (as well as the hassle to those wrongly caught by these new laws) to spend on new laws and regulations just to reduce the chance of a catastrophe happening from .0003% to .0001% (percentages are not based on actual statistics, dear nitpickers).
Our media today makes sure we have access to each and every tragedy or accident or incident around the world. I feel just the awareness alone of a single incident is enough to cause people to think and make sure something similar doesn't happen again. When it comes to companies or administrations who are at fault, their PR department alone will do enough to rectify the situation without legislative involvement. For us common folk, you now know what is possible out there in the world, but at the same time you should try to realize that you dont have to worry that 'it could happen to me'. It won't. When the same thing happens 10 or 15 times, then maybe go to your town hall meeting. But it John Q. Yokel gets hit by a meteorite and dies, we don't need to form a committee to study meteorite trends and forecasts. Crap happens and a lot of times, even preventative measures won't help.
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