Warning!!! Warning Labels!!! Part 1 of a Series

I am going to take a whack at sounding like a "real-professional" and do a small series of entries on Warning Labels and how they relate to our lives. It is mostly nonsense - but I will enjoy posting them anyway. 

Part 1 (See.. doesn't that sound "serious")

Has anyone else noticed the ridiculous warning labels on practically every product known to man? I read this label recently on a fold-up chair - "Watch fingers that they don’t get caught in between bars as they may get pinched".  Are we all really that stupid now?   As long as it's going to take that much to ensure no one yells, "lawsuit!" or “recall!”, why not cover all the bases?  All possibilities for injury need to be addressed or someone could always take advantage.  What about…"Warning…do not sit chair too close to fire or you may ignite". Or, "Do not trip over chair and impale yourself". And what about the obvious, "Do not fall asleep in chair on beach when tide is coming in”.

It seems that in our world today something is forever being re-studied or reconfigured for safety purposes. In some ways, this is a good thing. In some ways, it borders on crazy. Funny how something meant to give the consumer more of a sense of control can be so out-of-control, in itself. Unfortunately, this obsession with safety and "control" (which is ultimately the need that is fed), can actually encourage us to live more fearfully. As we spend more energy and time keeping "safe", we look for more opportunities to feel unsafe. As we achieve more control over our surroundings, we notice how big our "surroundings" have become. 

Don't get me wrong. I love American standards of safety... especially when I have just been to a foreign country. I kind of like our guard rails and non-exposed electrical wires, thank you. I am not calling for a complete return to the "pre-safety standards, use common sense" days of previous generations either, it did have it's faults. The car seat was a wonderful invention. The "throwing out of the arm to keep child in place on seat method" left much to be desired.

While watching the Winter Olympics this past year, I happened to note that the athletes wore helmets for everything... well, except curling. I'm actually surprised they did not require them for curling. That big heavy disk could come to life and hop off the ice and give one a major head injury! Those brooms could poke an eye out!  They should probably be wearing safety goggles... but I digress. Obviously, helmets make sense for many things. It is the degree to which the pendulum has swung the opposite way that always astounds me, and the speed in which it has happened. When I was a child (a mere moment ago...), I would have been laughed out of my neighborhood if I had been seen wearing a bicycle helmet. In contrast, I think today they require all children under the age of 12 to wear them while playing with little Hot Wheels race car sets.  Don't they? 

Ah... Control. Control of our lives. Control of what happens to us... it's actually a very funny idea, if you think about it.