Risk Taking

By drkevin

Mon, 02 Feb 2026
  • 101 reads
4 comments
 

I recently watched an episode of the 1960's TV series 'The Avengers', which was called 'The Danger Makers'. The premise of this episode was that some military officers were so bored in peacetime that they invented extremely dangerous games to restore their excitement.

Many died.

It made me wonder if modern society is now going the same way, driven by excessive leisure time, ample cash (for many) and a lack of meaning in life. An endless series of dubious and largely unnecessary 'challenges' seem to be emerging, often very unwise and occasionally fatal. Is it really sensible to throw yourself into the freezing cold sea, or to wander up mountains in the fog? Do we really have to row a tiny boat across the ocean, or race around the pavements on electric bikes? Simply riding ordinary cycles on busy A roads seems to be tempting fate, as vehicles doing a legal 60 mph are suddenly confronted by a family 'keeping fit' at 10mph around the next bend. 

Grandpa running marathons, controversial medication from the internet, potentially dangerous dogs running free at the play park. Youths in hot hatches. 

Perhaps I'm just a killjoy.

Or is it our whole culture now?

Just an opinion....

Certificate 15
Non-fiction
Rant
Unclassified
Philosophy
Horror

Comments

Submitted by GlosKat on

I think life in general is a lot less dangerous than it was. 

Take work, for example, long before any Health and Safety legislation came in. Alfred Williams ('the railway poet') wrote his autobiography about what it was like to work in the blacksmith's shop in the GWR works in Swindon in the 1890's.  Men suffered appalling injuries which were often fatal.  Even if they survived if they were too badly injured to work they were sacked.

A relative of mine who worked in Southampton docks was crushed between two railway carriages in 1865, taken home and died. (The family were too poor to afford a doctor).

And injuries in the home were more dangerous than now due to lack of medical care.  No A&E, no ambulance, and no phone in the house to ring for help, or a car to take them to hospital anyway. And if you were poor pre NHS then you couldn't afford medical bills.

My grandmother's brother died at 5 years old about 1915 when he pulled the tablecloth and pulled a pot of scalding tea on himself.

And I don't need to point out how dangerous childbirth has always been.  Even as recently 1900 one in every four children did not make it to their fifth birthday. My poor great grandmother had triplets in 1906 and all three died in a few days.  No scans or incubators in those days.

So I think our life in general is far less dangerous than it was.  Maybe that's why many are actually choosing danger now, rather than having it thrust upon them.  

 

Submitted by drkevin on

Yes, that was really the point made by the 'Avengers' episode. After the war, these characters actually yearned for excitement, so they invented new risks. Competitive sport, action packed movies, computer games and the media's fixation with crime and other social problems, probably provide similar releases for many. 

It seems that we need a certain optimal level of stimulation, and if we receive too much, or too little, stress is experienced. Corrective action follows, not only at an individual level, but perhaps at a collective cultural level too.

Thanks very much for your comments.

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

oh and I forgot to add all the ones lost at sea, as we were a seafaring family.  Two in the crew of The Titanic, one lost in fog on the rocks off Cherbourg  in 1915 (lthough nothing to do with the war), and one woman who died when her husband's dredger capsized in 1965 off the Essex coast.

Life was certainly pretty more dangerous then than now !

 

Submitted by TJW on

Not very dangerous but one game we invented was having someone sit in a chair while someone else throws at bottle of water at his crotch.  We we're testing the integrity of our groin plates.  Sometimes the plate check came out of nowhere.  You'd just be walking and someone coming the opposite direction would suddenly kick you in the groin declaring "Plate check!"

V/R