Risk-incompetence

From Wikipedia

If I happened to be a psychologist keen to make a name for myself, I’d be sorely tempted to invent a condition based on risk-incompetence. Maybe I’d give it a name such as RID or Risk-Incompetence Disorder. That would be the name I’d promote in my book, TV interviews and newspaper articles. Fat chance though. 

You see there is a nasty little catch to this wonderful wheeze - governments both ancient and modern got there first. What is worse, they make extensive use of it as the number one technique for controlling the behaviour of Mr and Ms Citizen, so I’d get no funding to promote my RID baby.

I'd do the research later of course - after I'd made a success of the theory. Eventually even the neatest ideas have to be defended with some carefully chosen research - look at climate change disorder (CCD).

But I digress. All governments at all times have felt the need for their citizens to assess risk incompetently. It’s one of the basics of social control.

Why? Because incompetent elites need incompetent citizens.
Why? Because competent citizens would get rid of incompetent elites.

So we end up with -

• The risk of voting outside the Big Three.
• The risk of being outside the EU.
• The risk of an unhealthy lifestyle.
• The risk of eating red meat.
• The risk of a glass or two of wine.
• The risk of eating salt.
• The risk of second-hand cigarette smoke.
• The risk of improving the NHS.
• The risk of being a child.
• The risk of cuddling a child.
• The risk of being a teenager.
• The risk of being a parent.
• The risk of failure.
• The risk of giving offence.
• The risk of getting a new job.
• The risk of challenging authority figures.
• The risk of building more houses.
• The risk of crime.
• The risk of climate change.
• The risk of oil running out.
• The risk of nuclear power.
• The risk of coal power.
• The risk of chemicals.
• The risk of not recycling.
• The risk of emigrating.
• The risk of immigration.
• The risk of free enterprise.
• The risk of change.
• The risk of armed citizens.
• The risk of new ideas.
• The risk of thinking.
• The risk of knowing.
• The risk of understanding.

Risk-incompetence is what supports the status quo and thereby its elite beneficiaries. It has been promoted by incompetent elites at all times in all societies and civilisations as the single most important aspect of top-down social cohesion.

All societies are based on risk-incompetence and the more complex the society, the more risk-incompetent its citizens must be.