Originally Posted by
electrik
OF course one should have just as many negative thoughts while in the car but, north american culture has billed the bicycle as exceedingly dangerous and a car as safe. This lack of social normalization and cultural internalization of risk has a lot to do with your original worries and the worries of the OP that they are doing something reckless
This is indeed the case. Almost anything we do has been branded as dangerous in some way.
Like a little Taco Bell, now and then? It'll kill you.
Enjoy a cold beer? Brewed death awaits.
Fancy a dip in the sea? It's alive with threats.
We have embraced threat, in fact. It has become a social passion, our mantra is "Something bad lurks around every corner."
It fills each newscast we see. Gurus make a career out of it and politicians a business of it.
I especially find it interesting, because I can recall a time in the near past when this was
not the case. It isn't that were blind to danger, or ignorant, but we assumed a certain element of risk awaited when we left our door each day. We knew that you could get into trouble or have accidents, and we called that Life. As a result, we told stories about people who beat the odds through intelligence and force of will, and we called them heroes.
Today we call them fools or reckless and insist they wear a helmet, or "check in" before they do anything. It is no wonder the OP feels death awaits at every turn of the pedal - he's been taught that it does.