p. 105-111
The author talks about the fear instinct using examples.
What do people fear? Getting hurt, losing their freedom or getting infected. All these fears help people living on Level 1 survive. In contrast, people on Level 4 don’t have that much use of these fears because either the threat is greatly reduced or the necessary help is readily available and the chance of survival high.
Instead, the fear instinct prevents the people on Level 4 from realizing how much better the world is at dealing with natural disasters for example. Deaths from natural disasters have decreased over the years and this is possible mainly because of international collaboration.
A couple of thoughts here:
First, I would argue that the fear instinct still serves a purpose on Level 4. The basic premise is that people on Level 1 do not have access to medical care or they can’t afford it so they need the fear instinct to avoid getting in such a need.
My premise is that natural disasters happen and no matter how well-prepared any country is, or how easily one can receive medical care, it is always best to know what one must do in an emergency. The fear instinct serves as a reminder and incentive to seek out that information.
Second, yes the number of deaths from natural disasters has gone down and it’s good to keep that in mind when bombarded with negative news about disasters and violence, but should we take this progress for granted?
On page 109 the author presents data and mentions that the deaths from natural disasters on Level 4 actually increased by 4 times during the period between 1991 and 2016 compared to the period between 1965 and 1990. The main contributor was the 2003 heatwave in Europe.
We’ve been hearing about weather phenomena getting more extreme in the future (on the news, but still…). We also see that even on Level 4 we cannot always be prepared against such phenomena. The most recent example, if I remember correctly, is the deaths in Japan due to a heatwave about a month ago. And finally, if international collaboration is the main reason a lot of deaths are prevented then we should worry about history repeating itself, returning to isolation instead of collaboration among nations.
So yes, look at the progress humankind has made, but don’t take it for granted.
The Spur of the Moment Guide to FACTFULNESS is a series of posts of first thoughts while reading the book FACTFULNESS by Hans Rosling (this is an affiliate link).
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