Risk assessing in a capitalist culture

I’ve been encouraged to think about who should decide what risks to take in this pandemic and it’s led to some interesting musing - thanks Will!

Whilst I am generally a rule follower, I’m also a believer in protesting when we don’t agree with ways a government is operating so I do not think we should blindly follow state rules, especially when I believe a ruling party is acting in the interests of the elite rather than for the greater good. Hence the current guidance that we could go to a person’s house to view it if they were selling it or if we were paid to clean it but not because we love the people and want to see them - where’s the profit in that?

However this does not automatically mean I believe that individuals are best placed to make effective risk assessments either. Not because I think people are incapable, but because we have been raised within a capitalist system that encourages us to prioritise certain things (wealth creation, competition) over community, compassion  and collaboration. I think we mainly have been led to believe that decision making should factor things like how much it costs us, how much we think we want it, the benefit to ourselves and maybe our loved ones. I do not think we are encouraged to make decisions that weigh up the impact on the planet, the consequences for people we have never met (for example who made the product we’re considering buying, who live in the place we’re thinking of going to Etc). I don’t think that’s an inherent selfishness, I think we generally are not given good information to make informed decisions as to do so might put us off the consumerism that is needed to perpetuate a capitalist market. Even with increased information (eg fair trade logos) until our earliest learnings are outside of an individualised culture, people will still struggle to make decisions that honour our inter relatedness. For capitalism to work we have to be robbed of our connectedness, we lose our understanding that we are all just as important as one another, that no one is expendable. Most of us are not supported to challenge this system, so the decisions we make are usually rooted in concern for self and monetary value rather than wider consequences. I hear people deciding to speed in some areas because they've decided they're less likely to get caught there - so risk assessment is based on potential personal cost (to ego, money or personal freedom) rather than assessing cost to the environment, likelihood of hurting someone else etc. 

And I don’t deny it’s really tricky to weigh up so many aspects when there’s so much we don’t know. I believe we’re all doing the best we can- however we have been damaged by a culture that means our good thinking is clouded by an often unacknowledged bias towards money making, materialism and personal gain, that impacts unfavourably on some. 

I'm working towards a society where people and leaders weigh up risk and decisions based on how it will affect the most vulnerable, and consider wider and long term consequences.  Until then I will try to keep noticing how the decisions made by those with most power affect those with least. I will encourage people to keep figuring for themselves what is important and will challenge the assumptions that what is best for anyone is linked to their productivity, that instead we can choose to prioritize our mental health, our connectedness, and love - not money :-)