This is one of those books that readers seem to either love or hate. Many readers -- as revealed by Amazon.com comments -- seem to be unable to get past the general theme of a book. This is a shame as almost any book contains nuggets of the truth.
Selects excerpts from Risk and Culture:
In risk perception, humans act less as individuals and more as social beings who have internalized social pressures and delegated their decision-making processes to institutions. They manage as well as they do, without knowing the risks they face, by following social rules on what to ignore: institutions are their problem-simplifying devices. [p.80]
Unfortunately, life has gotten too complex for any of our current institutions.
Family life and work life focus and restrict the individual vision. [p.81]
If groups of young people are allowed to splinter off, who will be left to deliver the pension scheme? To maintain a rosy expectation of the long term they must exert continual vigilance in justifying the present system, with its delayed satisfactions and whatever inequalities are part of it. [p.86, Emphasis mine. MH]
If groups of young people are allowed to splinter off, who will be left to deliver the pension scheme? To maintain a rosy expectation of the long term they must exert continual vigilance in justifying the present system, with its delayed satisfactions and whatever inequalities are part of it. [p.86, Emphasis mine. MH]
