Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
I s'pose I'm part of the two-thirds who are rationally afraid of snakes, especially the aggressive kind with fangs and venom which are found on the trails.
Now what do you call the kind of person who gets fanged by a rattler while trying to take a selfie with it?
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Just the same as someone who is trying to stand in front of a moving train and take a selfie. Both in some situations are dangerous-neither needs to be feared to nearly eliminate risk. I spend a lot of time outdoors and have had many rattlesnake encounters while leading kids on trail. I did not feel the least bit concerned for my or their safety since I took a few simple precautions. The scariest part of some days is getting groups of kids across roads!
Far fewer people are afraid of cars, and in today's modern world they carry far more risks than snakes. Some studies on primates suggest we are hardwired to easily pick up fear of snakes. Those who did not perhaps would be weeded out of the gene pool back in the day when snakes were a greater risk. We humans are awful at judging risk
We also try to judge organisms in our daily lives, good, evil, clean, unclean, beneficial, useless, etc. I realize that they are none of these. They are simply evolving and surviving, and our morals cannot apply to the natural world.
I haven't read any Thoreau, but the guy seems pretty chill