Just Another Knee-Jerk Reaction

The aftermath of that tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis has brought just another knee-jerk reaction. The safety of almost every older bridge in this country is now being called into question. Politicians and citizens alike are rushing around in effort to make sure enough money is available for support and maintenance of our public infrastructure. People are coming out of the woodwork to claim that they predicted something like this was soon going to happen. Dire warnings are being sounded. 

Every time some isolated tragedy occurs, we react by going around acting is if something similar is about to occur everywhere. In most cases, of course, it is not. But here’s another problem with that way of thinking: If it really were about to occur everywhere, why hadn’t we been doing something about it before? Why does it take some kind of cataclysmic event to force people to do things they should have been doing all along?

Our problem is that, as a culture, we have a short attention span. We tend to focus on important issues based on the latest calamity. In September of 2001, we were worried about terrorism. In August of 2005, we were concerned about our vulnerability to natural disasters. In April of this year, we were afraid of being killed by crazed gunmen. We are now terrified of crossing bridges (of all things). Don’t worry, though – it’ll soon wear off and we’ll be back to business as usual.