I’m talking firstly physical “safety”, as exemplified by (in the city I’m currently visiting) the removal of iconic local statues that have been in place for years, because “inclusive” idiots very suddenly decided they were a “trip hazard”… Because everyone is on their phones now, and therefore don’t look where they are going. 😑
Of course, this is just a symptom of a much, much wider problem, and only “works” because we’ve spent three years being terrified of a fucking virus, and all the tribalism that brought…
But this goes much further - you have “cultural safety”, you have “safe communications”, you have “safety on campus”, you have “LGBTQ+ safe spaces” - all of which comes back to our most bizarre obsession with the primacy of feelings and feeling safe, even if, in reality, you are probably less “safe” than ever…
Some of this is worse in Australia than elsewhere (the physical “safety” stuff here is probably the worst in the world), but a lot of the other ideological stuff originated in North America…
All in all, it comes back to that saying about “freedom vs temporary safety”, I suppose, but geese, what a bleak, sanitized, generic and utterly boring society we are building, FML… 😒
But I feel like there is a difference between OH&S at work (which is sometimes reasonable), and someone deliberately finding bizarrely unlikely scenarios, in public places, then campaigning to have objects taken away, because someone “might” trip over them, if they weren’t looking…
I walked through the space yesterday. It’s gone from full of art pieces and activity (which kids in particular loved), 10 years ago, to absolutely nothing now, except seating (which of course you can also trip over) and some trees…
It feels absolutely deliberate, I must say…
Consequently, foot traffic declines; businesses leave, etc…
council "risk management" consultants have to justify their cost.