The Danger of Mental Blindspots to Personal Safety

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A blindspot is an area that a person is unable to see because of some obstruction that blocks it. Regarding personal safety, a blindspot is an assumption that exists in a person’s mental schema that effectively obstructs rational decision-making in threatening situations.

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These assumptions are often based on popular beliefs or social conditioning that a person has internalized that influence behavioral responses (or lack thereof) to various external events. Not all assumptions are necessarily bad and some can be useful, but assumptions that effectively inhibit a person’s natural threat response to actual danger can be deadly for that person.

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The danger of blindspots to personal safety is a particularly important topic given the current civil unrest and social entropy happening in the greater collective. The cliché “it won’t happen to me” assumption is especially dangerous because it places that person at greater risk of harm.

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A quick glance at current events reveals a disturbing trend of violence perpetuated against ordinary people. Violence trends, like anything else that trends, and those who believe it won’t happen to them are at risk because there are no rules in the human condition that absolutely prevent this violence.  

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There are no universally-enforced guarantees that people won’t become victims of violence or harm. And protective measures—e.g., law enforcement, social agreements, civil behavioral norms—cannot be depended on to mitigate the occurrence of violence or harm.  

   

This should be cause for alarm. Seeing the drastic degradation of social order should alert the observer to previously latent threats that are now a present and clear danger. But more importantly, these changes should signal to the observer the necessity of checking their assumptions against reality so they don’t become a victim of their own assumptions that prevent them from seeing reality for what it is.

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Challenge Your Mental Assumptions

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The average citizen likely didn’t think the social order would breakdown to the point it’s at now in certain hotspots of civil unrest (excepting those who’ve witnessed or experienced this before). The average citizen probably assumed that humans are rational beings who would always attempt to resolve a problem rationally before devolving to open violence and harm against others (excepting those who’ve experienced how irrational people really are). The average citizen probably also assumed the government would protect them against violence and harm from others (excepting those who’ve not experienced this protection).

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These assumptions may be intuitively appealing but they aren’t actually supported by evidence. Although this is true, people may nevertheless default to the “should” mode of thinking to rationalize holding onto these assumptions. But “should” thinking only puts the person at a further disadvantage because this thinking is based on what the person thinks should happen as opposed to what, in reality, actually happens. Objectively, what actually happens doesn’t give two hoots about what a person subjectively thinks should happen.

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A threat remains a threat regardless of whether the individual person views it as a threat. Being able to see a threat for what it is versus what a person wants to see it as can mean the difference between life and death. This is especially relevant in a time when indiscriminate violence and harm is being perpetuated against ordinary people.  

Having this more realistic perception requires a person to actively challenge their mental assumptions. That person must constantly resist the tendency to drop their guard and become complacent—even if society tells or encourages people to. Complacency kills. Willful or learned ignorance merely makes a person an easy target because that person is unsuspecting and naïve. Choosing not to see the boogeyman doesn’t actually protect against the boogeyman.

 

This isn’t as easy to do as it is to talk about. If it’s inconvenient and laborious to develop situational awareness, it’s all the more so to sustain it over time. But being situationally aware is essential to avoiding becoming a victim of violence or harm. And the best way to remain aware of one’s surroundings and events is to challenge the mental assumptions that influence misinterpretations of these surroundings and events. In other words, to stay alert and aware of our surroundings, it’s essential that we challenge the assumptions that influence complacency and ignorance of potential threats.  

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Seeing Reality for What it is

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Although a stable state of civility is ideal, it’s certainly not realistic. Humanity’s primal nature—specifically, the potential for violence—mustn’t be ignored in favor of delusional social conventions and popular beliefs in “peace” and “love” and “justice.” After all, the word Utopia actually means “no place” because no place could ever exist where people existed but violence and harm were no longer present. We carry these potentials within us, inherent in our humanness, and no amount of active denial of these potentials will eradicate them.

   

People may have the potential to be rational, but it doesn’t follow that they will actually be rational. People may have the potential to be kind, but it doesn’t follow that they will actually be kind. People may have the potential to be civil, but it doesn’t follow that they will actually be civil. People may have the ability to be fair, but it doesn’t follow that they will actually be fair.

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One thing is for certain, however: people will rationalize, and in some circumstances moralize, their behavior no matter how absurd or uncivil or harmful it may be to others. Great harm has been done in the name of “virtuous” ideas. After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Thus, a “well-intentioned” person could bring great harm on an unsuspecting person if that well-intentioned person believes the harm is necessary, justified, or even obligatory.   

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The best way to preempt violence and harm against oneself is to see reality for what it is, not just what one wants it to be. Our mental assumptions are more often than not incongruent with objective reality. We must recognize this and challenge these assumptions constantly.