Self-indulgent risks reflect larger issues

SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Monday January 19th, 2009

The travel industry is not noticing any real decline due to the recession. They are offering deals to try and make you take a trip; so they might be losing a bit of money, but they are actually seeing record numbers of vacationers. Carnival Cruise line had its largest volume of bookings ever last week.

At first this seems a little strange since there are so many people on the verge of losing their livelihood, their home, or just their way of life. Six thousand Nortel employees, lots of Aliant employees, mill workers, every day we hear about another round of layoffs. We are not even close to what is happening in the States yet. Still we choose to spend thousands of dollars on a one-off disposable item like a trip to Disney World.

I think this has to do with the same reason people buy snowmobiles.

Bear with me, and I will bring this back around. When I lived in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, I lived on the side of Lake Champlain. Everyone, and I mean everyone, drove their "skidoos" onto the ice as soon as possible and as late as possible. They had drag races, and crossed indiscriminately into the United States. Now, at the same time every single one of them had a buoy tied to the back of the sled; because every single one of them lost that thing every year when it plunged through the thin ice.

They were also big into ice fishing and parked their big Buicks and Crown Victoria's on the ice until May, but that is another level of lunacy.

My brother went to Florida a few years back and jumped off a crane attached to a bungee cord.
This might all seem stream of consciousness but I have a theory that most of what we do now-a-days is actually done for escape. The curious thing about that is that the more risky our regular lives, the more pain and hardship we face, the larger the risks we take in our play time as well.

So think about the world. Iraq and Afghanistan, Oil prices and mortgage defaults, more than a thousand killed in Gaza. And what do we do? Go helicopter skiing and snowmobiling in the back country of British Columbia where avalanches are a real possibility. We go out on the ice when it is not safe. We drive too fast on highways when it is snowing. We take risks.

It is foolish if you think about it. The more we feel under the gun, the more stressed we are, the more likely we are to do things that will actually get us hurt. All the while, the actual pressure of the situation has made our ability to "talk ourselves down" almost non-existent.

The younger we are, the more we seem to be okay with this. I remember driving to Ottawa at 140 kilometres per hour during the ice storm in Quebec. It just never occurred to me that I might actually get in an accident. I see it all the time here, young people driving by me way too fast for the conditions; blissfully unaware of what is going to happen to them.

But it is not just young people. This phenomenon applies to everyone. The list of risky behaviors is unbelievably long; and it ranges from recreational risks like skydiving and scuba diving right through to the risks we take with alcohol, with sexuality, and even with deep fried foods.

Now, far be it from me to say that this is terrible.

I myself engage in escapism, as tame as reading and watching movies, playing World of Warcraft, right up to some real risky behaviours. I know that what I have written is true -- when I am stressed I am more likely to over indulge in everything. I also realize I have to learn to cope better.

From all historical accounts it would seem that at the end of the Roman Empire, during the dying days of one of the most powerful, stable, and innovative societies ever; everything went wrong in exactly this way.

People began to overindulge, it became very individualistic, very hedonistic, and the choices people made only made things worse. Instead of a sense of civic duty everyone turned to a sense of self-fulfillment. I can't even write about the things that went on in ancient Rome's twilight without getting into trouble. You could, however, read some of the other articles in this paper and get a pretty good sense.

Things are not so different here in the decline of the Western Empire.

My real fear is that the risk taking, self-indulgent attitude that is pervading our society is a real portent of what is on the horizon. This seems to be the end of our society as we know it, and we are, to steal a quote, fiddling as Rome burns.

I am not entirely sure what to turn our energy to; there are prophets and gurus aplenty, like David Suzuki and Eckhart Tolle, who are trying to offer suggestions. I guess I am simply trying to sound the alarm.

Perhaps if we are aware of some of the motivations that go behind our actions we might be better able to fight against the impulse towards self-destruction. At least, that is what my hopeful side keeps arguing. We can start small, by trying to limit our escapism and focus on engagement.

The more we try to be part of the solution, the less impact the problem might have on our lives.