卷首語
作者：Angie Pinchbeck
The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.
Walking through the park the other day I noticed a young kid climbing a tree. I stood watching him for a few minutes, lost in nostalgia, when, out of nowhere, a woman came screaming past me. It was immediately apparent that Mom had arrived, and she was pissed. "Get out of the tree!" she screeched. "You could fall and break your arm!" Although not impressed, the little guy complied with Mom's hollering and soon they were on their way with Mom still in full-force berate-mode.
This got me thinking: where was the little guy's fear? Why didn't he care about whether or not he fell out of the tree? And where did Mom's terror come from? Surely this was not her son's first time monkeying around the tree tops—he'd seemed a pretty adept climber to me. When do our fears, our insecurities, begin? Where do they come from?
Quite often they arise from a simple experience-learn model. If you're dumb enough to touch the hot iron, you get burnt. Therefore, fear the hot iron and don't touch it. This happens on a macro level as well; for example, worrying over the quality of our food after experiences like the milk scare (What's Wrong with the Food?). And events like 1986 Chernobyl have shown us that what's happening in Japan could have some serious consequences (Japan's Nuclear Crisis: The Fine Line Between Security and Insecurity).