Precautionary Principle Redux

I read the other day that the precursor to the precautionary principle was the simple maxim "look before you leap". But that is a world away from, if there's a risk don't jump, which is the precautionary principle today.

I wonder how many of today's youth have thought, I'd like to do this or that and then thought, oh, wait a minute I might get hurt or I might fail and disappeared back into Mum's basement. If the current crop of university students are the gauge I suspect it's more than a few. With a few notable exceptions they seem incapable of thinking for themselves or of standing up to the mob.

Most of them are wasting their time at school anyway, they amass significant debt and come out with a degree that will not get them a job at McDonalds and back to Mum's basement they go.

I would urge the youth coming out of high school today to abandon the precautionary principle, look at your options, do a cost/benefit analysis then leap into the known. Failure is not the end of the world as long as you learn from it. Failure is an excellent teacher if you listen.

I did decide to leap but I also took a good look. At seventeen I decided to join the Navy. To see whether that was a good decision I first joined the Naval Reserve. I found I liked it and was cut out for it so I applied for the Regular Force with the goal of retiring as a Chief Petty Officer. As it turned out, after all the testing etc. I was offered a commission, another look, another leap. That pretty much sums up my careers, precipice on the horizon, look, then leap, managed not to land in too much doodoo.

The maxim most people forget is, nothing ventured, nothing gained! Which is, of course the antidote to today's application of the precautionary principle.

Governments of course have stretched the precautionary principle to the breaking point, with the recent pandemic as a case on point. Few jurisdictions did a cost/benefit analysis but leapt upon the bandwagon of masks, mandates and lockdowns just in case a few people might die. Well a few people did die, but if the recent data from the BC CDC is any indicator, no more than would have died in any case.

However, the ancilliary costs were not considered or if they were they were studiously ignored. If the government had looked before it leapt and considered, first do no harm, we would quite likely be better off than we are.